|^Q    ^w         SB    Ib    774 

7304- 


...  OF  ECONC: 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS 

IN 

FALL  RIVER 


Report   prepared   for  the    Associated 
Charities   Housing  Committee,  by 

CAROL  ARONOVICI,  Ph.  D. 

Director  of  the  Bureau  of 

Soci;il    i{i>s«>iirrli  of  New 


I'uhlishod  hy  (lu>  Associntotl  Charities  Housing  Committee 


A 


<ltlr 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN  FALL  RIVER 


INTRODUCTION 

The  present  report  on  Fall  River 
housing  conditions  is  based  upon  an 
investigation  made  by  the  Bureau  of 
Social  Research  of  New  England  for 
the  Associated  Charities  Housing  Com- 
mittee which  was  appointed  on  Decem- 
ber G,  1911. 

The  interest  in  housing  conditions, 
under  which  many  of  the  working 
people  of  Fall  River  are  living,  had  its 
inception  in  a  number  of  informal  con- 
ferences held  at  the  local  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
the  Boy's  Club  and  the  Associated 
Charities,  where  the  main  features  of 
the  problems  were  discussed  and  which 
finally  resulted  in  the  appointment  by 
the  Associated  Charities  of  a  Commit- 
tee **  with  powers  to  act. " 

After  a  number  of  meetings  and  dis- 
cussions the  Committee  was  convinced 
that  in  order  to  bring  about  perma- 
nent and  extensive  improvements  in 
existing  conditions,  it  was  necessary 
to  secure  sufficient  data  whereby  an 
accurate  and  intelligent  estimate  of 
the  seriousness  and  extent  of  the  local 
housing  problem  could  be  formed. 
With  this  idea  in  mind  the  Committee 
raised  a  fund  of  $500  to  cover  the 
expense  of  a  thorough  study  of  condi- 
tions  and  engaged  the  services  of  the 
Bureau  of  Social  Research  of  New 
England  to  carry  on  the  work.  The 
Committee  in  calling  the  Bureau  of 
Social  Research  to  make  the  investi- 
gation felt  that  an  outside  agency 
would  be  more  likely  to  study  condi- 
tions with  impartiality,  and  that  the 
wide  experience  of  this  Bureau  in 
making  housing  surveys  in  more  than 
a  dozen  other  cities  and  towns  in  New 
England,  commended  it  to  Fall  River. 

The  investigation  was  started  about 
the  1st  of  February  and  lasted  for  six 
\\t-eks.  The  facts  herein  presented 
are,  therefore,  of  recent  date  and  with 
very  few  exceptions  are  indicative  of 


the  present  status  of  the  local  housing 

problem. 

REV.  WILLARD  L.  SPERRY, 

H.  C.  DODGE, 

REV.  A.  C.  BALDWIN, 

THOMAS  CHEW, 

DR.  GEORGE  L.  RICHARDS, 

REV.  E.  W.  SMITH, 

GEORGE  H.  WARING, 

OLIVER  S.  HAWES, 

ALICE  E.  WETHERBEE, 

DR.  FENNER  A.  CHACE, 

WILLIAM  E.  FULLER,  JR. 

CAROL  ARONOVICI,  Ph.D. 

Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Social  Research  of 
New  England  and  in  charge  of  the  investi- 
gation. 

FIELD  OF  INVESTIGATION 

In  determining  upon  the  field  of 
investigation  in  a  housing  survey  three 
important  factors  must  be  kept  in 
mind. 

1.  The  amount  of  money  and  time 
available  for  the  work. 

2.  The  distribution  of    unsanitary 
housing  conditions  and  their  relation- 
ship to  the  tenement  population. 

3.  The  relation  that  the  conditions 
found   bear  to  the   conditions  under 
which  the  average  wage  earner's  fam- 
ily in  the  community  must  live. 

In  preparing  for  the  Fall  River 
housing  survey,  owing  to  the  limited 
funds  available,  it  was  found  impossi- 
ble to  cover  the  entire  city,  but  a  care- 
ful examination  of  the  city's  tenement 
districts  led  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
study  of  the  districts  marked  in  black 
upon  the  map  on  page  two  would  be 
fairly  representative  of  existing  con- 
ditions and  would  cover  the  sections  in 
which  the  most  serious  evils  exist. 

In  all  279  buildings  either  in  courts, 
rows  or  detached  houses  were  exam- 
ined. These  buildings  contained  1171 
apartments  with  a  population  of  5980 
persons  or  5  %  of  the  population  of 
Fall  River. 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN   FALL  RIVER 


The  desire  of  the  Committee  was  to 
ascertain  general  conditions  rather 
than  startling  abuses.  It  was,  there- 
fore, found  advisable  in  fairness  to  the 
city  not  to  pick  individual  houses  but  to 
take  whole  sections  and  record  both 
sanitary  and  unsanitary  conditions, 
normal  and  abnormal  structures  and 
base  the  conclusions  upon  an  average. 
At  no  time  in  the  course  of  the  inves- 
tigation were  individual  abuses  sought 
out  and  recorded  without  thoroughly 


METHOD  OF  WORK 

The  method  employed  in  the  housing 
survey  consisted  of  a  house  to  house 
canvass  in  the  districts  included  in  the 
territory  covered.  The  agents  em- 
ployed in  this  canvass  were  trained 
men  with  experience  in  other  New 
England  cities,  and  familiar  with  the 
housing  laws  and  ordinances  in  force 
in  Fall  River. 

Printed  cards  with  specific  questions 


Map  of  Fall  River,  shaded  portion  indicating  district  covered  in  the  preparation  of  this  report 


studying  the  rest  of  the  district.  A 
glance  at  the  map  referred  to  above 
will  convince  the  reader  that  the  field 
of  inquiry  was  extended  over  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  city,  which 
practically  encircled  the  main  business 
districts,  and  at  several  points  pene- 
trated into  its  very  center.  A  consid- 
erable portion  of  the  houses  on  the 
Mt.  Hope  Bay  water  front  were  also 
examined. 


concerning  the  structural  and  sanitary 
conditions  of  buildings,  the  interior 
condition  of  apartments,  crowding, 
etc.  were  filled  out  by  the  agents  in  the 
field,  using  a  separate  card  for  each 
building  and  for  each  apartment.  The 
questions  printed  upon  the  cards  were 
so  framed  as  to  leave  as  little  as  possi- 
ble to  the  individual  discretion  of  the 
agents,  and  were  based  upon  standard 
cards  used  in  similar  investigations  in 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN    FALL  RIVER 


more  than  a  score  of  other  cities  with 
such  modifications  as  local  conditions 
required.  The  original  record  cards 
filled  out  in  the  field  haye  been  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Associated  Charities 
and  will  be  used  as  a  basis  for  future 
investigation,  as  well  as  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Committee  in  its  effort  to 
secure  improved  conditions.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  field  records  a  large  num- 
ber of  photographs  have  been  taken, 
some  of  which  have  been  reproduced 
in  the  body  of  this  report. 

THE  POINT  OF  VIEW 

In  the  planning  and  carrying  out  of 
the  investigation  the  point  of  view  of 
the  committee,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
investigating  agency,  the  Bureau  of 
Social  Research,  was  one  of  impartiality 
and  thoroughness.  It  was  evident  that 
a  program  of  housing  reform  is  needed 
and  the  investigation  was  undertaken 
with  aim  in  view  of  preparing  such  a 
program  on  the  basis  of  the  best  facts 
obtainable,  dealing  not  only  with  ex- 
isting conditions,  but  with  the  legal 
and  administrative  machinery  avail- 
able, their  merits,  efficiency  and  fitness 
for  the  local  needs.  How  successful 
we  have  been  in  carrying  our  point  of 
view  into  the  work  which  this  report 
represents  will  be  determined  only  by 
the  constructive  work  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  facts  and  its  application 
will  bring  about,  both  in  a  more  rigid 
enforcement  of  existing  legislation  and 
in  the  securing  of  new  laws  and  ordi- 
nances intended  to  remove  existing 
evils  and  prohibit  in  the  future  the 
building  of  houses  which  do  not  comply 
with  a  reasonable  standard  of  sanita- 
tion and  comfort. 


The  above  figures  show  that  one-half 
of  the  population  whose  homes  were 
examined  were  adults  and  in  most  in- 
stances the  father  and  mother  of  the 
family.  Of  this  number  of  adults  601, 
or  about  one  in  every  five,  were  per- 
sons without  families  living  as  lodgers 
in  the  homes  of  their  compatriots  and 
friends.  The  significance  of  this  ex- 
tensive practice  of  keeping  roomers 
will  be  dealt  with  later,  but  its  extent 
cannot  better  be  shown  than  by  the 
figures  above  quoted.  Sufficient  to  say 
that  251  families  out  of  a  total  of  1171, 
or  almost  one  in  every  four  families 
opens  the  privacy  of  its  home  to  per- 
sons who  are  in  no  way  connected  with 
its  members  by  blood  relation. 

NATIONALITY 

We  have  stated  at  the  beginning  of 
this  report  that  while  we  did  not  select 
merely  the  tenements  which  were  in 
bad  condition,  we  did  consider  only 
the  districts  in  which  objectionable 
conditions  exist  in  largest  numbers 
without  claiming  that  we  have  in  any 
way  covered  all  the  plague  spots  which 
in  all  probability  exist  in  various  parts 
of  the  city. 

If  responsibility  rests  with  the  city  to 
take  care  of  the  health  of  its  people 
when  native  born  Americans  are  con- 
sidered, vastly  greater  responsibility 
ensues  when  the  living  conditions  of 
foreign  immigrants  with  foreign  stand- 
ards and  foreign  modes  of  life  are  in- 
volved. To  show  how  predominant  the 
foreign  elements  are  in  thedistrictscov; 
ered  by  this  investigation  we  have  pre- 
pared the  following  table  showing  the 
nationalities  of  persons  by  the  place  of 
birth  of  the  head  of  the  family,  where 
such  information  could  be  obtained: 


Nationality 

lemoers  01 
Faniihes 

Lodgers 

Total 

THE  PEOPLE 

French  Canadian 
Irish 

787 

82 

37 

1552 

824 

Poles 

457 

189 

646 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the 

Portugese 

1370 

103 

1473 

investigation    covered    the  homes  of 

Italians 

145 

24 

169 

5980  people.   Their  distribution  accord- 
ing  to  age  was  found  to  be  as  follows: 

Jews 
English 
Syrians 

137 
282 
130 

32 
17 
15 

169 
299 
145 

%  of  Total 

German 

5 

5 

Adults                                 3006               50.26 
Children  under  5                 989               16.54 

Negroes 
Greek 

19 
4 

19 

4 

5  to  14                                  1334               22.31 

Austrian 

10 

3 

13 

Over  14                                651               10.89 

American 

145 

35 

180 

100.00 


Total 


4961 


537 


5498 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN  FALL  RIVER 


It  is  interesting  to  note  that  of  the 
4961  persons  whose  nationality  accord- 
ing to  head  of  family  was  determined 
beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  only  3.2% 
were  native,  while  96.8%  were  of 
foreign  parentage  and  foreign  born. 
How  great  the  responsibility  for  the 
care  of  the  housing  and  sanitary  facili- 
ties of  these  foreigners  is,  can  easily 
be  perceived  when  it  is  realized  that 
the  present  investigation  covered  a 
considerable  share  of  the  bad  housing 
conditions  and  that  the  distribution  of 
population  by  nationality  is  such  as 
the  figures  above  quoted  indicate. 

When  we  consider  the  English  speak- 
ing people  separately  from  the  non- 
English  speaking  population  we  find 
that  the  former  represent  only  23.5% 
of  the  population  or  less  than  one- 
quarter.  Whether  the  general  standard 
of  housing  in  which  the  English  speak- 
ing people  live  is  higher  than  that  of 
the  non-English  speaking  is  a  question 
that  cannot  be  answered  wholly  in  the 
affirmative.  In  some  cases  the  native 
born  and  the  English  speaking  people 
do  have  better  homes,  but  the  distinc- 
tion is  to  be  found  rather  in  the  con- 
gestion and  the  general  outward  ap- 
pearance of  the  structure  than  in  the 
actual  sanitary  advantages  and  facili- 
ties which  they  possess.  The  lack  of 
congestion  and  a  longer  residence  in 
the  United  States  contribute  consider- 
able towards  the  promotion  of  a  better 
standard  of  home-making  among  the 
English  speaking  people,  although 
many  instances  of  the  filthiest  and 
most  neglected  homes  were  found 
in  apartments  inhabited  by  this  class 
of  population. 

ACCOMMODATIONS 

It  has  been  stated  in  the  introduction 
that  1171  apartments  were  examined 
in  the  course  of  the  inquiry,  and  in  the 
foregoing  chapter  the  figures  relative 
to  the  age  distribution  of  the  5980  who 
occupy  these  apartments  are  given. 
What  accommodations  this  six  thous- 
and people  have  in  these  apartments 
will  be  discussed  in  this  section. 

In  all  4239  rooms  used  for  living 
purposes  were  found  in  the  1171  apart- 
ments, or  on  an  average  of  3.7  rooms 


per  apartment.  The  distribution  of 
these  rooms  according  to  their  use  was 
found  to  be  as  follows: 


Percent      of 

Use  of               Total  No. 

Percent  of 

families  hav- 

Rooms              of  Rooms 

Total 

ing     various 

Rooms 

kinds      of 

rooms 

Kitchens                1141 

26.9 

97.44 

Kitchen  Bed             Qn 
Rooms 

0.7 

2.56 

Bed  Rooms           2812 

64.1 

100.00 

Sitting  Rooms       9rn 
or  Parlors 

5.9 

21.34 

Dining  Rooms          28 

0.6 

2.38 

Attic  Rooms            78 

1.8 

6.66 

Total  4239         100.00* 

*  On  basis  of  1171  apartments 

The  above  table  shows  that  only 
21.34%  of  the  families  have  any  kind 
of  spare  rooms  which  are  not  used  as 
kitchens  or  sleeping  rooms  and  that 
only  2.38%  have  a  separate  dining 
room.  In  all  other  cases  the  kitchen 
is  used  both  as  sitting  room  and  dining 
room.  This  fact  may  be  expressed 
more  simply  by  saying  that  97.62%  of 
the  families  whose  homes  were  studied, 
eat  in  the  kitchen  and  that  78.66%  of 
the  families  carry  on  the  daily  business 
of  family  life  during  wakeful  hours  in 
the  family  kitchen.  The  difficulty  that 
this  condition  of  extra  use  of  the 
kitchen  brings  about  can  be  well  left 
to  the  imagination  of  the  reader. 

The  thirty  cases  in  which  the  kitchen 
is  used  not  only  as  a  sitting  room 
and  dining  room,  but  where  it  is  also 
used  as  a  bedroom  show  a  still  more 
acute  tendency  towards  untidiness,  and 
further  accentuate  the  problem  of  pre- 
serving privacy  and  cleanliness.  In 
five  such  cases  lodgers  were  found  to 
be  occupants  of  the  kitchen  beds,  one 
of  whom  was  unquestionably  in  the  last 
stages  of  tuberculosis.  The  family  dog 
and  the  children  were  using  the  same 
kitchen  as  a  playroom.  That  the  fam- 
ily pet  was  carrying  the  disease  to  the 
children  and  the  adults  of  the  family 
was  evident  from  the  fact  that  at  the 
time  of  the  investigating  agent's  call 
the  dog  partook  of  the  contents  of  the 
open  cuspidor. 

Of  the  78  attic  rooms  only  nine  were 
actually  in  use  in  the  winter  months. 
In  connection  with  attic  room  use  it 
may  be  said  that  while  they  have  their 
advantages  structurally,  and  dfrer  ten- 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN    FALL  RIVER 


ants  an  opportunity  to  occupy  larger 
quarters  than  they  would  otherwise 
occupy  for  the  same  rent,  they  are 
practically  useless  in  the  winter  months 
because  of  the  problem  of  heating. 
This  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  only 
nine  such  rooms  were  being  used  for 
bed  room  purposes,  the  balance  being 
wholly  idle  although  frequently  fur- 
nished. 

The  78  attic  rooms  here  considered 
do  not  include  attic  apartments  which 
were  counted  separately  in  the  cases 
where  all  the  rooms  occupied  by  the 
family  were  located  in  the  attic. 

ROOM  OCCUPANCY 
AND     CONGESTION 

The  discussion  of  the  conditions  relat- 
ing to  room  occupancy  or  the  relation 
between  the  number  of  people  and  the 
number  of  rooms  has  frequently  been 
based  upon  the  number  of  rooms  in  the 
apartments,  as  related  to  the  number 
of  persons  residing  in  these  rooms.  It 
seems,  however,  that  such  an  estimate, 
while  fair  in  a  sense,  does  not  exactly 
express  the  intensity  of  congestion. 
Sitting  rooms  and  dining  rooms  as  well 
ns  kitchens,  except  in  case  of  email 
children,  are  seldom  occupied  for  any 
very  long  part  of  the  day  and  this  is 
particularly  true  during  warm  weather. 
The  sleeping  rooms,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  occupied  during  at  least  seven  or 
eight  hours  in  twenty-four  by  all  the 
members  of  the  family  and  practically 
always  at  the  same  time.  On  the  basis 
of  number  of  persons  per  bedroom  the 
following  conditions  were  found: 

1  !••<!  rooms  2812 

I ;.'(lroom  and  Kitchen  30 

Attic  Bedroom  9 

Total  Rooms  2851 

Number  People  5980 

Number  Persons  per  Bedroom  2.09 

The  above  figures  seem  to  indicate 
that  in  general  the  apartments  exam- 
ined did  not  show  any  very  serious 
congestion.  When  calculated  on  the 
basis  of  total  number  of  rooms  the 
figures  seem  to  show  a  still  more  en- 
couraging condition  which  may  be  ex- 
pressed in  the  ratio  of  1.4  persons  per 
room. 


For  purposes  of  comparison  the  fam- 
ilies with  lodgers  were  examined  with 
a  view  to  determining  room  occupancy 
and  it  was  found  that  while  in  the 
case  of  families  without  lodgers  there 
were  only  1.3  persons  per  room  in  the 
case  of  the  families  with  lodgers  there 
were  1.7  persons  per  room. 

The  fact  that  whatever  congestion 
may  be  found  in  Fall  River  is  due  to  a 
considerable  extent  to  the  evil  practice 
of  taking  lodgers  into  private  families, 
was  especially  emphasized  when  the 
population  of  twelve  of  the  most 
crowded  apartments  were  examined 
and  in  every  case  one  or  more  lodgers 
were  found. 

THE  LODGER 

Considerable  has  been  said  concern- 
ing congestion  due  to  the  common 
practice  of  taking  lodgers.  A  word 
should  be  added  relative  to  the  signi- 
ficance of  this  practice  from  the  point 
of  view  of  family  privacy.  245  fam- 
ilies out  of  a  total  of  1171,  or  one-fifth 
of  the  total  considered  in  this  study, 
keep  lodgers.  In  other  words,  the 
lodger  evil  affects  978  members  of  pri- 
vate families  out  of  a  total  of  5980 
persons  whose  homes  were  examined, 
or  a  little  less  than  one-fifth  of  the 
total. 

The  danger  to  the  family  arising 
from  this  widespread  practice  of  ex- 
posing the  private  life  of  the  heads  of 
the  family  and  that  of  the  young  girls 
to  the  presence  of  men  in  no  way  con- 
nected by  blood  relationships  with  the 
members  of  the  household,  is  so  clearly 
evident  that  comment  can  add  little  to 
the  significance  of  the  figures  pre- 
sented above. 

The  problem  of  crowding  in  the  fam- 
ilies where  lodgers  are  kept  does  not 
seem  quite  as  acute  as  might  be  ex- 
pected when  averages  only  are  consid- 
ered. In  the  case  of  all  families  we 
find  209  persons  for  each  hundred  bed- 
rooms while  in  the  case  of  the  families 
where  lodgers  are  kept  we  find  216 
persons  for  each  hundred  bedrooms. 
By  separating  the  families  without 
lodgers  from  the  total  it  was  hoped 
that  a  considerable  difference  from  the 
total  average  would  be  found,  but  the 


6 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN    FALL  RIVER 


figures  showed  that  while  in  the  case 
of  all  the  families  there  were  209  per- 
sons per  hundred  rooms  in  the  case  of 
the  families  without  lodgers  the  num- 
ber per  hundred  rooms  was  only  two 
less.  This  would  tend  to  show  that 
the  keeping  of  lodgers  does  not  neces- 
sarily increase  congestion,  but  rather 
that  the  alternatives  are  either  the 
crowding  of  the  family  into  small 


This  unique  cellar  closet  is  "flushed"  by  turning 
on  the  faucet 

quarters,  or  the  hiring  of  larger  quar- 
ters into  which  lodgers  must  be  re- 
ceived to  meet  the  higher  rent. 

That  occasional  abuses  do  exist  and 
that  in  some  instances  the  figures  ob- 
tained in  the  course  of  the  investigation 
were  not  entirely  accurate  cannot  be 
denied,  but  even  admitting  a  slight  in- 
accuracy, the  congestion  in  families 
with  lodgers  is  not  to  be  considered  a 
serious  menace  from  the  point  of  view 


of  health,  although  the  moral  danger 
should  not  be  ignored  as  one  of  the 
most  serious  in  threatening  family  in- 
tegrity and  privacy.  Instances  of  ten 
lodgers  in  two  rooms,  of  six  lodgers  in 
one  room,  of  two  lodgers  sleeping  in 
the  kitchen  and  similar  conditions  of 
congestion  were  found,  but  vigilance 
on  the  part  of  the  Health  authorities 
and  an  increased  sense  of  responsibility 
both  among  owners  and  the  tenants, 
should  do  away  with  these  abuses  with 
little  effort  and  with  little  hardship 
to  even  the  poorest  of  families,  which 
could  find  larger  quarters  at  a  very 
slightly  increased  cost. 

RENTS 

There  are  many  factors  which  deter- 
mine the  character  of  rent  in  various 
communities  such  as  price  of  land, 
taxation,  ownership,  legislation,  build- 
ing traditions  and  the  industrial  char- 
acter of  the  community.  All  these 
factors,  however,  are  by  no  means  as 
powerful  in  their  influence  upon  the 
character  of  buildings  as  the  standard 
demanded  by  the  tenants  and  the  sup- 
ply and  demand  of  tenements  which 
the  increase  of  population  determines. 
In  other  words  we  cannot  expect  a 
process  of  natural  selection  to  eliminate 
ill  constructed  and  unsanitary  tene- 
ments, when  the  tenants  are  by  their 
very  presence  competing  with  their 
fellow  workers  for  the  cheapest  shelter 
regardless  of  sanitary  or  aesthetic 
values,  and  where  the  demand  by  far 
exceeds  the  supply  of  such  accommo- 
dations. The  figures  we  are  about  to 
cite  may  possibly  indicate  this  fact. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  comprehensive 
conception  of  the  rent  in  Fall  River  the 
apartments  were  classified  according 
to  number  of  rooms,  and  then  the 
average  rental  per  apartment  was  cal- 
culated. The  results  are  as  follows: 


Apartments  rented  by  the  Week. 

Aver  age 

No.  Rooms 

Max. 

Min. 

Total 

Monthly 

Rent 

Rent 

Apts. 

Rent    of 

each  room 

Two  Rooms 

1.60 

0.75 

6 

2.47 

Three  Rooms 

300 

0.75 

307 

2.13 

Four  Rooms 

4.50 

1.15 

199 

2.02 

Five  Rooms 

3.75 

1.15 

134 

1.52 

Six  Rooms 

3.75 

1.50 

52 

1.61 

Seven  Rooms 

3.75 

1.50 

30 

1.77 

Eight  Rooms 

3.00 

2.00 

4 

1.35 

Total 

4.50 

2.00 

732 

1.93 

HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN   FALL  RIVER 


The  above  figures  are  of  significance 
both  to  the  social  worker  and  to  the 
tenant  who  might  with  intelligence 
apply  the  simple  principle  involved  in 
these  figures.  It  is  apparent  even  to 
the  most  unstatistical  mind  that  the 
apartments  with  the  smallest  number 
of  rooms  command  the  highest  rentals 
per  room.  The  two  exceptions  in  the 
case  of  the  six  and  seven  room  apart- 
ments are  due  to  the  general  improve- 
ment in  the  quality  of  the  apartments 
with  six  and  seven  rooms,  while  the 
four  eight  room  apartments  were  of  a 
low  grade  and  isolated.  That  the 
families  with  the  smallest  number  of 
rooms  should  be  paying  the  highest 
rate  of  rent  is  not  surprising,  for  the 
smaller  the  purchase  in  the  open  mar- 
ket the  higher  the  price.  The  poor 
man  in  Fall  River  not  only  pays  more 
for  his  sugar,  coal,  potatoes  and  most 
other  necessities  of  life  but  also  for  the 
facilities  for  making  a  home,  as  shown 
by  the  figures  herein  quoted.  Con- 
ditions found  in  several  other  cities 
like  Buffalo,  Providence,  Springfield, 
etc.  which  have  recently  been  investi- 
gated by  the  writer  lead  to  the  same 
conclusion. 

In  order  to  excuse  this  difference 
in  the  rental  per  room,  owners  fre- 
quently argue  that  the  rooms  in  the 
smaller  apartments  are  larger  and 
should,  there  fore,  yield  a  higher  rental. 
Measurements  were,  therefore,  taken 
of  136  apartments  by  rooms  and  there 
is  absolutely  no  ground  for  affirming 
that  the  average  amount  of  floor  space 
rather  than  the  number  of  rooms  forms 
the  basis  for  the  establishment  of  the 
rental  standard.  It  is  also  interesting 
to  note  that  on  the  whole  the  average 
rental  per  apartment  does  not  vary 
materially  between  cities. 

The  complete  returns  of  the  investi- 
gation gave  accurate  rent  figures  for 
805  families.  Of  this  number  732,  or 
over  90%,  were  rented  by  the  week  and 
less  than  10%  were  rented  by  the 
month.  The  comparative  figures  of 
rentals,  while  on  the  whole  showing 
the  same  tendency  as  in  the  case  of 
the  apartments  rented  by  the  week, 
are  not  numerous  enough  to  make  the 
slight  change  found  in  the  five  room 


apartment  rentals  any  particular  signi- 
ficance. In  Buffalo  it  was  found  that 
the  five  room  apartment  commands  a 
higher  rental  than  the  four  room  apart- 
ment and  examination  showed  that 
they  were  of  a  better  class.  How  true 
it  is  in  the  case  of  Fall  River  can  only 
be  surmised  from  the  figures  as  the 
actual  investigation  did  not  yield  data 
of  value  on  this  point.  The  figures 
are  as  follows: 

Rent  per  Month 
p<£  Room 

$2.15 


XT 

No.  rooms 


Three  Rooms 
Four  Rooms 
Five  Rooms 
Six  Rooms 


1.81 
1.89 
1.50 


The  figures  for  the  apartment  rented 
by  the  month  indicate  practically  the 
same  tendency  as  in  the  case  of  the 
tenements  rented  by  the  week. 

OWNERSHIP 

The  stability  of  the  population  and 
to  a  certain  extent  its  thrift  and  indus- 
trial efficiency  may  be  measured  by 
the  amount  of  home  ownership.  In 
the  course  of  the  inquiry  dealt  with  in 
the  present  report  an  attempt  was 
made  to  ascertain  the  number  of  apart- 
ments occupied  by  their  owners.  In 
all  only  ten  families  occupied  apart- 
ments in  houses  which  they  owned, 
four  of  these  families  lived  in  three 
room  apartments,  five  each  lived  in 
four  room  apartments,  and  one  each 
in  seven  and  eight  rooms.  That  out 
of  a  total  of  1171  apartments  only  six- 
teen or  1.3%  should  own  their  homes, 
indicates  a  condition  which  should  at 
least  be  considered  by  those  public 
spirited  citizens  who  wish  to  develop 
community  loyalty  and  stability  as  the 
safest  basis  for  business,  and  indus- 
trial expansion. 

CHARACTER  OF  BUILDINGS 

The  character  of  buildings  in  the 
study  of  housing  conditions  may  be 
determined  by  material  of  construc- 
tion, relation  to  other  buildings,  num- 
ber of  stories,  location  with  relation  to 
front  of  lot  and  the  apartments  per 
floor. 


8 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN   FALL  RIVER 


Of  the  279  buildings  or  rows  of 
buildings  examined  only  five  were 
constructed  of  brick  and  the  balance 
are  frame  buildings  of  various  sizes. 
In  relation  to  the  front  of  the  lot  21  or 
over  7%  of  the  buildings  were  rear 
tenements  with  the  view  of  the  street 
partially  or  wholly  shut  off.  These 
tenements,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
repair,  were  found  to  be  in  very  poor 
condition  and  the  sanitary  arrange- 
ments were  below  the  average  stand- 
ard of  the  buildings  examined.  To 
this  number  of  rear  buildings,  which 
were  occupied  by  104  families  with  a 
population  of  611  persons,  must  be 
added  the  buildings  in  courts  which 
are  off  the  main  street.  Nine  such 
buildings  were  found  and  the  condi- 
tions which  they  revealed  indicated  a 
significant  similarity  between  them 
and  the  rear  buildings  strictly  so  called. 

The  height  of  buildings  can  be  best 
measured  by  the  number  of  stories. 
The  figures  concerning  the  number  of 
stories  per  buildings  are  as  follows: 


Stories 

One  and  a  half 

Two 

Two  and  a  half 

Three 

Three  and  a  half 

Four 


Percent  of  total 
Building's 

0.5 
20.7 
32.3 
37.4 

7.1 

2.0 


These  figures  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  largest  number  of  the  build- 
ings examined  were  three  story  dwell- 
ings. The  attics  or  half  stories  were 
used  as  separate  apartments  in  only 
seven  cases,  and  for  this  reason  it  may 
be  said  that  the  two  and  two  and  half 
story  building  prevails  since  about  53% 
of  all  the  buildings  examined  were  two 
and  two  and  a  half  story  buildings. 

FIRE  ESCAPES 

In  connection  with  the  height  of 
buildings  some  consideration  was  given 
to  the  problem  of  providing  fire  es- 
capes. No  serious  criticism  can  be 
made  of  the  number  of  fire  escapes 
provided,  except  in  a  few  cases,  where 
either  they  have  become  dangerous  by 
decay  or  where,  although  the  letter  of 
the  law  is  fulfilled,  the  conditions  under 
which  the  fire  escapes  were  built  are 
such  as  to  make  them  practically  use- 


less. In  74  cases  wooden  fire  escapes 
are  provided,  in  27  cases  while  the 
railings  are  of  iron  the  platforms  are 
of  wood  and  in  some  instances  in  a  con- 
dition of  disrepair  or  decay  which 
would  make  them  practically  useless 
for  the  purpose  for  which  they  are  in- 
tended. In  two  cases  on  the  third  story 
attics  ropes  were  found  which  are  in- 
tended for  use  in  case  of  fire.  In  four 
cases  the  fire  escapes  are  located  so 


A  "fire-escape"  with  stone  landing  place 

close  to  adjoining  buildings  as  to  make 
escape  in  case  of  fire  dangerous  if  the 
fire  should  be  on  that  part  of  the  build- 
ing, because  the  narrow  space  would 
draw  the  smoke  and  fire  in  that  direc- 
tion. 

The  encumbrances  which  were  found 
on  these  fire  escapes  varied  in  degree 
from  small  quantities  of  wood  and 
refuse  to  boxes  of  food  and  ashes, 
garbage  cans,  etc.  Where  the  plat- 
form is  solid  the  fire  escapes  are  fre- 
quently used  for  storage  purposes. 

The  most  important  objection  to  the 
fire  escapes  found  is  centered  about 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN    FALL  RIVER 


the  wooden  platform  which  decays 
with  age  and  which,  in  some  instances, 
is  used  mainly  for  storage  purposes. 
In  two  instances  fire  escapes  in  three 
story  buildings  were  entirely  lacking. 


A  favorite  use  of  the  fire  escape 
THE  LOWEST  FLOORS 

In  the  construction  of  dwelling 
houses  the  lowest  floor  whether  that 
be  a  cellar  or  basement  determines  con- 
siderable of  the  stability  and  sanitation 
of  the  structure.  A  flimsy  cellar  will 
not  support  solid  structures  and  a 
damp  cellar  will  transmit  its  dampness 
to  the  rest  of  the  building  either 
through  the  wall  or  through  the  atmos- 
phere rising  through  the  hall  and  win- 
dows. 

Of  the  279  structures  examined  13 
had  basements,  one  had  neither  cellar 
nor  basement,  and  the  balance  had 
regular  cellars  with  entrances  usually 
from  the  interior  of  the  lower  hall.  In 
only  two  cases  were  basements  found 
to  be  used  for  dwelling  purposes,  while 
six  others  were  used  for  business  pur- 
poses. Of  the  latter  four  were  saloons, 
one  a  bakery  and  another  a  produce 
store. 

The  ventilation  in  the  cellars  was 
poor  in  most  instances  and  in  59  cases 


the  ventilation  was  practically  nil,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  more  than  one- 
half  of  these  as  we  shall  see  later  had 
toilets  located  in  them.  In  five  cases 
the  windows  were  boarded  up  to  keep 
out  the  water  and  cold. 

The  lighting  was  quite  as  poor  as  the 
ventilation  and  in  127  cases  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  see  across  the  cellar  with  any 
degree  of  distinctness.  Fifty-five  of 
these  cellars  were  almost  entirely  de- 
void of  light  and  the  experiences  of  the 
investigators  in  attempting  to  secure 
data  concerning  these  cellars  and  the 
toilets  in  them  were  so  unpleasant  as 
to  bear  no  description  in  a  report  of 
this  kind.  The  forty-two  cases  of  ac- 
cumulations of  rubbish  of  all  kinds 


A  "damp"  cellar 

added  to  the  difficulty  of  ventilation 
and  in  some  instances  the  odors  from 
the  cellar  penetrated  the  whole  of  the 
building  and  were  so  distinctive  as  to 
prompt  the  investigator  to  designate 
certain  of  the  buildings  as  "cellar 
strong  ". 

The  amount  of  water  and  dampness 
found  in  the  cellars  varied  in  degree 
with  each  house,  but  fifty-three  were 
designated  as  positively  wet  and  in  six 
cases  the  water  was  deep  enough  to 
make  the  entrance  impossible  without 
rubber  boots.  In  one  case  while  trying 
to  take  a  photograph  of  a  toilet  in  the 
cellar  the  writer  found  eleven  inches 
of  water  at  the  very  entrance  and  was 
compelled  to  equip  his  photographer 
with  rubber  boots  in  order  to  secure 
the  photograph  desired.  In  four  in- 
stances at  least,  the  sewer  pipes  had 


10 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN    FALL  RIVER 


broken  and  the  sewer  was  flowing 
freely  into  the  cellar.  Two  inspections 
at  these  houses  at  an  interval  of  five 
days  revealed  the  same  condition  of 
disrepair. 

The  odor  of  sewer  gas  was  very  com- 
mon and  in  twenty-seven  instances  a 
note  was  made  of  this  fact,  although 
in  many  other  buildings  such  odor 
was  detected  but  was  not  considered 
sufficiently  serious  to  deserve  special 
notice. 


DARK  ROOMS 

Dark  rooms  ' '  from  the  point  of 
view  of  Fall  River  or  any  other  of  the 
smaller  cities  does  not  necessarily 
mean  rooms  without  any  windows, 
but  any  rooms  in  which  the  light  is 
obstructed  so  as  to  make  the  use  of 
artificial  light  necessary  and  where 
the  circulation  of  air,  although  coming 
from  the  outer  air  or  from  a  shaft,  is 
so  reduced  as  to  make  proper  ventila- 
tion practically  impossible. 


A  flooded  cellar  toilet 


OUT  BUILDINGS 


In  all  67  out  buildings  were  found, 
of  this  number  29  were  stables  and  in 
16  chickens  were  kept.  With  five  ex- 
ceptions the  stables  were  not  kept  in 
proper  condition  and  the  storage  of  the 
horse  dropping  was  open  to  criticism. 
In  one  case  a  stable  was  found  to  be 
a  serious  nuisance  to  the  tenants  in 
the  house  and  to  the  neighbors.  The 
keeping  of  horses  and  chickens  does 
not  seem  to  be  conducive  to  cleanli- 
ness, and  in  the  summer  if  the  same 
conditions  prevail  they  might  cause 
considerable  discomfort  and  possibly 
ill-health,  particularly  through  the 
breeding  of  flies. 


The  findings  of  the  present  investi- 
gation show  that  at  least  105  of  the 
rooms  examined  were  dark  or  semi- 
dark,  besides  a  very  large  number  in 
which  the  light  comes  from  narrow 
alleys  or  passages  between  buildings 
which  vary  in  width  from  four  to  eight 
feet  and  in  which  on  cloudy  days  it  is 
impossible  to  read  or  do  work  that 
requires  any  considerable  amount  of 
light.  The  number  of  such  rooms  could 
not  be  accurately  estimated  because  of 
the  weather  conditions  which  varied 
considerably  from  day  to  day  in  the 
course  of  the  investigation.  It  must 
be  admitted  that  105  dark  rooms  is  not 
a  very  large  proportion  of  the  total 
number  examined,  but  with  the  open 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN    FALL  RIVER 


11 


space  available  and  the  occupancy  of 
lot,  which  was  found  to  average  only 
58%  of  the  total  in  the  329  building  lots 
examined,  there  seems  to  be  no  excuse 
for  permitting  the  existence  of  dark 
rooms,  since  generally  speaking  their 
existence  does  not  mean  either  econ- 
omy of  land  or  any  special  desire  to 
adjust  the  interior  arrangements  to  an 
exterior  architecture  having  a  parti- 
cular aesthetic  value.  The  dismal  rows 
of  buildings  constructed  without  re- 
gard to  beauty  or  to  the  convenience 
of  the  residents, in  most  instances  con- 
tain dark  rooms  because  of  lack  of 
legislation  controlling  the  building  of 
such  rooms  and  also  because  of  the  ab- 
sence of  proper  architectural  service 
in  the  preparation  of  plans. 


Dark  bedroom  with  window  opening  against  adjoin- 
ing building,  leaving  an  air  space  of  only  six  inches 

The  distribution  of  the  dark  rooms 
according  to  their  use  is  as  follows: 


Bed  Rooms 

Kitchens 
Dining  Rooms 

Total 


94 

10 

1 

105 


The  dark  bed  rooms  were  used  at  the 
time  of  the  investigation  by  209  per- 
sons, 23  of  whom  were  lodgers.  That 
the  number  of  lodgers  is  under  esti- 
mated rather  than  overestimated  we 
are  convinced  since  reinvestigation  of 
the  same  families  at  brief  intervals 
.uave  different  results  and  revealed  the 
fact  that  the  people  are  aware  of  the 
existence  of  some  legislation  which 
prohibits  crowding  particularly  when 
it  is  due  to  the  keeping  of  lodgers. 

The  ten  dark  kitchens  were  found  in 
poor  condition  of  repair  in  practically 


every  case,  and  in  two  instances  they 
were  used  also  for  sleeping  and  eating 
purposes. 

Of  the  105  dark  rooms  examined, 
53  had  windows  opening  into  the  outer 
air,  but  these  were  obstructed  by 
buildings  which  ranged  in  proximity 
from  four  inches  to  four  feet.  All  of 
these  windows  were  of  normal  size. 
Twelve  of  the  dark  rooms  had  windows 
opening  into  another  room;  in  three 
cases  these  windows  consisted  of  tran- 
soms, while  in  all  other  cases  the  win- 
dows were  subnormal  in  size.  In  24 
cases  the  windows  opened  into  the 
hall,  three  of  which  were  only  tran- 
soms and  in  15  cases  the  windows 
opened  into  shafts  which  were  covered 
at  the  top.  In  five  cases  there  were 
no  windows  provided. 


Dark  bedroom,  without  any  opening  into  the 
outer  air 

The  rooms  with  hall  windows  were 
found  in  nine  cases  to  be  so  located  as 
to  derive  their  air  from  halls  in  which 
poorly  ventilated  toilets  were  also 
located. 

The  cases  where  darkness  is  due  to 
proximity  of  buildings  bring  out  an- 
other important  point,  namely,  the 
condition  of  cleanliness  of  the  narrow 
spaces  between  buildings  which  cannot 
be  cleaned  because  of  the  proximity  of 
the  walls.  The  accumulation  of  refuse 
between  these  walls  not  only  becomes 
offensive  to  the  eye  but  in  time, through 
decay,  pollutes  the  air  which  under  the 
best  of  circumstances  is  neither  suffi- 
cient nor  of  the  best  quality. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  cases  of 
dark  rooms  was  found  in  the  Italian 
section  of  the  city  where  the  owner 


12 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN    FALL   RIVER 


Through  the  doorway  may  be  seen  the  window  of  a 
semi-dark  room,  deriving  its  only  light  and  air 
from  the  hall 

desiring  to  increase  the  capacity  of  the 
building  joined  two  structures  and 
united  them  by  a  covered  hall  into 
which  the  inside  rooms  open.  The 
small  private  halls  connected  with  each 


apartment  which  were  light  before  the 
change  was  made  have  now  become 
very  dark  and  their  ventilation  has 
been  cut  off,  in  spite  of  the  presence  of 
the  toilets,  which  are  located  in  these 
private  halls. 

In  the  main  the  dark  room  should  not 
be  a  difficult  problem  to  handle  in  Fall 
River.  More  windows  could  be  opened 
in  most  cases,  and  in  the  building  of 
new  tenement  houses  the  use  of  com- 
mon sense  in  planning,  rather  than  a 
tax  upon  the  present  standard  of  lot 
occupancy, should  prevent  in  the  future 
the  construction  of  rooms  which  are 
not  amply  provided  with  light  and  air. 

TOILET  FACILITIES 

There  is  no  problem  of  housing  that 
has  been  so  seriously  considered  by 
building  and  health  authorities  as  the 
providing  of  sanitary  toilet  facilities. 
This  problem  involves  not  only  the  con- 
venience and  health  of  the  tenants  for 
whom  such  facilities  are  provided,  but 
the  health  of  the  whole  neighborhood 
and  in  its  acuter  forms  the  health  of 
the  whole  community  may  be  affected. 
The  mass  of  laws  and  ordinances  re- 
lating to  this  subject,  inadequate  and 
unintelligent  as  they  frequently  are, 
indicate  a  consciousness  of  public  re- 
sponsibility which  should  serve  to  solve 
the  problems  that  exist  at  the  present 
time  in  most  cities.  That  Fall  River  has 
its  problem  will  be  shown  presently. 


CONDITION  AND  LOCATION  OF  TOILETS 


LOCATION  OF 

CLEANLINESS 

LIGHT 

VENTILATION 

TOII  FTS 

Clean 

Dirty 

Filthy 

Light 

Gloomy 

Dark 

Good 

Poor 

None 

Hall 

47 

36 

5 

38 

22 

28 

38 

41 

9 

Pantry 

54 

17 

0 

41 

20 

10         45 

23 

3 

Off  Bed  Room 

12 

15 

0 

11 

7 

9 

11 

16 

0 

Kitchen 

225 

149 

15 

172 

46 

171       191 

122 

76 

Sitting  Room 

1 

0 

0 

1 

0 

0           1 

0 

0 

Cellar 

121 

111 

51         72 

169 

42       118 

137 

28 

Sink  Room 

6 

8 

3 

8 

7 

2          8 

8 

1 

Sink  Closet 

0 

2 

0 

2 

0 

0 

2 

0 

0 

Basement 

14 

1 

0 

7 

3 

5         12 

3 

0 

Dark  Closet                   0 

1 

0 

0 

1 

0 

0 

1 

0 

Attic  Rooms 

1 

2 

0 

3 

0 

0 

2 

1 

0 

Dining  Room 

0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

0 

1 

0 

0 

481 

343 

74 

356 

275 

266 

429 

312 

117 

HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN    FALL  RIVER 


13 


The  examination  of  the  toilets  was 
made  along  the  following  lines;  loca- 
tion, cleanliness,  lighting,  ventilation, 
condition  of  water  supply,  repair  and 
number  of  families  using  them.  The 
table  above  indicates  the  location  of 
all  toilets  within  the  buildings,  their 
cleanliness,  light  and  ventilation. 


The  frozen  toilet — a  widespread  evil  presenting  a 
serious  problem.     In  room  intended  as  a  bedroom 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  384,  or  the 
largest  number  of  toilets  were  found 
in  the  kitchen.  This  is  undoubtedly 
due  to  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
owners  to  keep  the  water  from  freez- 
ing. The  conditions  under  which  these 
toilets  are  built,  however,  make  proper 
lighting  and  ventilation  impossible,and 
for  this  reason  171,  or  almost  one-half, 
are  entirely  deprived  of  light  and  no 
facilities  for  artificial  lighting  are  pro- 
vided. One-fifth  of  the  kitchen  toilets 
are  entirely  deprived  of  ventilation 
outside  of  the  vent  pipes  which  in  most 
instances  were  found  to  be  doing  poor 
service.  It  is  fortunate,  however,  that 
being  so  near  the  place  where  the  cook- 
ing is  done  and  where  in  many  in- 
stances the  families  take  their  meals, 
a  certain  amount  of  care  is  exercised, 
which  brings  the  number  of  filthy 
toilets  down  to  fifteen,  by  no  means  a 
negligible  quantity. 


In  sixteen  cases  the  partitions  which 
separate  the  toilets  from  the  kitchen 
were  found  to  be  so  constructed  that 
they  do  not  meet  the  ceiling  by  from 
six  inches  to  three  feet,  in  order  that 
some  light  and  ventilation  may  be  de- 
rived from  the  kitchen.  Of  the  16  cases 
of  this  type  two  were  found  to  be  in 
filthy  condition  and  in  one  instance 
the  water  had  been  shut  off  to  prevent 
freezing. 

The  most  serious  condition  was  found, 
however,  in  the  cellar  toilets  where 
the  freezing  or  shutting  off  of  the 
water,  and  the  tax  upon  the  fixtures 
by  over  use,  have  rendered  some  of 
them  filthy  beyond  description  and 
wholly  out  of  repair.  Of  the  288  cellar 
toilets  examined  51  or  over  Yl%  were 
found  in  filthy  condition.  Only  one- 
quarter  were  found  properly  lighted 
and  118  or  considerable  less  than  one- 
half  have  proper  ventilation.  In  the 
28  cases  where  poor  ventilation  was 
found,  the  condition  of  cleanliness  and 
repair  was  invariably  worthy  of  seri- 
ous criticism.  In  nine  instances  in  cel- 
lar toilets  the  condition  of  repair  and 
the  cold  weather  had  caused  freezing 
and  human  feces  was  found  on  the 
floor  of  the  toilets  and,  in  at  least  two 
cases,  it  overflowed  into  the  cellar  it- 
self. In  35  cases  the  water  had  been 
shut  off  to  prevent  freezing  and  re- 
inspections  of  these  premises  at  inter- 
vals of  five  days  indicated  that  there 
was  no  effort  made  to  provide  the 
necessary  flushing  during  the  frost 
period.  Water  was  found  in  three 
cellars  where  the  toilets  were  located 
and  in  one  instance  eleven  inches  of 
water  was  found.  In  twenty-three 
cellars  with  toilets  dampness  of  a  seri- 
ous character  was  detected. 

The  toilets  in  the  pantry  which  were 
found  so  frequently  (71)  were,  as  may 
be  noted  by  glancing  at  the  table,  not 
in  the  best  of  condition.  The  light  was 
poor  in  20  cases  and  10  of  these  toilets 
were  entirely  dark.  Three  of  the 
toilets  had  no  ventilation.  The  cleanli- 
ness left  considerable  to  be  desired. 
The  most  serious  condition,  however 
was  found  in  the  cases  where  the 
toilets  were  located  in  the  same  com- 
partment with  the  pantry.  Seventeen 
such  cases  were  found  and  in  three 


14 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN   FALL  RIVER 


instances  the  cleanliness  left  consider- 
able to  be  desired.  The  shutting  off  of 
the  water  in  four  cases  made  the  con- 
dition more  serious,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  inquiry  complaints  were  being 
made,  that  while,  at  the  time  of  the 
investigation,  the  water  had  been 
turned  on,  during  the  cold  weather  the 
water  had  been  either  frozen  or  turned 
off  for  a  period  of  from  a  week  to  six 
weeks. 


"Open  plumbing" 

Sink  room  toilets  were  not  found 
very  common,  but  wherever  they  were 
found  they  did  not  seem  to  be  in  the 
best  condition,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  kitchen  utensils  were  frequently 
left  there  and  most  of  the  kitchen 
work  had  to  be  done  in  that  compart- 
ment. In  three  cases  the  filthy  condi- 
tion of  the  toilet,  due  to  the  lack  of 
care  and  absence  of  water  supply,  was 
undoubtedly  a  menace  to  the  health  of 
the  occupants  of  the  apartment  and  in 
the  summer  would  be  a  serious  menace 
to  the  whole  neighborhood. 

The  hall  toilets  are  usually  objection- 
able because  of  their  location  at  a  point 
where  the  occupants  of  the  building 
have  to  pass,  and  because  in  compara- 
tively few  instances  can  proper  light 
and  ventilation  be  provided.  Of  the 


88  such  toilets  one-third  were  dark 
and  one-fourth  were  gloomy.  The 
ventilation  was  found  to  be  poor  in  41, 
or  almost  half  the  cases,  and  no  venti- 
lation was  provided  in  nine  cases. 
Aside  from  the  structural  conditions 
which  made  proper  maintenance  im- 
possible the  absence  of  water  which 
was  found  in  27  cases  made  the  condi- 
tion still  more  serious.  That  under 
the  conditions,  not  more  filthy  toilets 
were  discovered  in  the  course  of  the 
investigation  was  surprising. 

The  toilets  located  near  the  bed 
rooms,  sitting  rooms,  sink  closet,  etc. 
were  on  the  average  in  better  condi- 
tion. A  word  must  be  said,  however, 
about  the  two  toilets  found  in  the  bed 
rooms  without  partitions  since  this 
type  of  construction  is  so  rare  and 
represents  such  a  low  standard  of 
privacy  as  to  raise  a  serious  moral 
question.  In  one  instance  the  father, 
mother  and  three  children  were  found 
to  be  using  a  toilet  bed  room  which 
was  not  in  the  best  of  repair  and  as 
is  shown  by  the  photograph  indicates 
a  lack  of  privacy  that  is  truly  alarming. 


A  toilet  in  a  bedroom  occupied  by  five  persons 

The  practice  of  turning  off  the  water 
in  the  winter  months  to  prevent  freez- 
ing and  the  placing  of  toilet  pipes  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  make  freezing  in 
ordinary  winter  weather  possible  is  a 
serious  menace  to  health.  In  all  of  the 
898  indoor  toilets  examined,  14  were 
found  without  water,  due  to  the  in- 
tentional shutting  off  of  the  supply  on 
the  part  of  the  owner  and  19  cases  of 
freezing  were  discovered.  That  last 
winter  in  some  instances  this  practice 
was  perhaps  necessary  cannot  be 
denied,  but  that  the  water  should  be 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN   FALL  RIVER 


15 


shut  off  for  from  three  days  to  two 
months  is  hardly  a  measure  that  can 
be  found  excusable  in  homes  where 
more  than  the  average  number  of  per- 
sons generally  reside.  It  was  claimed 
by  the  owners  that  the  water  is  turned 
off  only  for  the  night,  or  that  it  is 
opened  from  time  to  time  during  the 
day,  but  every  desire  to  verify  this 
assertion  proved  that  this  practice  was 
the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

The  photographs  taken  indicate  some 
of  the  details  of  the  conditions  found 
and  all  that  remains  to  be  said  in  con- 
nection with  the  indoor  toilets  is  that 
they  were  frequently  in  a  serious  con- 
dition of  disrepair  and  neglect  ranging 
from  a  general  dilapidated  condition 
with  bad  walls,  broken  doors,  leaking 
pipes,  etc.,  to  the  overflow  of  feces  on 
to  the  toilet  floor  and  spreading  into 
the  cellar,  pantry  or  kitchen  floors. 
The  latter  cases  were  limited  to  only 
three. 

The  construction  of  the  toilets  in- 
dicated, in  some  instances,  a  desire  to 
make  use  of  every  device  which  would 
save  money  for  the  owner  and  such  de- 
vices were  the  cause  of  many  of  the 
objectionable  conditions  found.  In  one 
case,  for  example,  the  owner  failing 
to  provide  a  proper  tank  for  the  flush- 
ing of  the  toilet,  provided  a  faucet 
which,  however,  did  not  meet  the 
needs  and  made  the  floor  constantly 
damp.  In  another  case  owing  to  the 
absence  of  flushing  arrangements,  pails 
of  water  had  to  be  "knocked  down" 
to  flush  a  toilet  which  was  in  bad 
repair. 

The  outdoor  toilet  was  not  found  as 
frequently  as  was  expected.  In  all 
only  46  families  were  found  to  be  using 
20  toilet  buildings  located  in  the  yard. 
These  buildings  had  40  seats.  The 
cleanliness  of  these  toilets  was  not 
beyond  reproach,  although  under  the 
most  trying  conditions  some  of  the 
tenants  showed  a  desire  to  keep  them 
clean.  Only  18  of  the  40  compart- 
ments examined  had  locks  and  in  nine 
cases  the  doors  were  found  in  such  a 
condition  of  disrepair  as  to  be  almost 
useless.  In  two  instances  where  the 
water  had  frozen  the  toilets  were  in 
such  an  indescribable  condition  of  filth 


Typical  out-building 

as  to  make  them  useless.  In  one  par- 
ticular instance  twelve  families  were 
compelled  to  use  one  toilet  because  of 
the  freezing  of  the  toilets  originally 
assigned  to  them  and  every  evidence 
of  such  use  could  be  detected. 

In  all  1171  apartments  were  exam- 
ined and  898  indoor  and  40  outdoor 
toilets  were  found.  This  would  seem 
to  show  that  not  every  family  had  its 
own  toilet  facilities.  The  distribution 
of  toilets  by  families  using  them  is  as 
follows: 

Number  of  Families  Usinj?  Toilets  and  the  Location. 


Location  of 
Toilets 


One        Two         Three         Four         Five 
Family  Families  Families  Families  Families 


Apartment  436 
Hall                49 
Cellar            133 
Basement       15 
Yard               26 
Attic 

33 
116 

11 
3 

6 
27 

2 

10 

1 

2 

Total 


659        163 


11 


These  toilets  account  for  the  ac- 
commodations of  1144  families.  The 
balance  of  the  families  were  using 
whatever  toilets  were  provided  in  the 
building  and  frequently  imposed  upon 
the  neighbors.  Owing  to  the  condition 
of  disrepair  which  was  so  frequently 
found  particularly  in  the  toilets  used 
by  more  than  one  family  eight,  ten 
and  as  many  as  twelve  families  were 
found  to  be  using  toilets  which  were 
not  properly  ventilated  and  could  in  no 
way  be  kept  clean.  In  one  such  in- 
stance the  freezing  of  the  toilets  had 
caused  the  families  in  one  yard,  twelve 
in  number  to  use  one  broken  toilet, the 
water  of  which  had  been  shut  off  the 


16 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN   FALL  RIVER 


morning  before  the  investigation  to 
prevent  freezing. 

Some  of  the  conditions  found  were 
so  serious  as  to  require  reinvestigation 
in  order  to  verify  the  facts.  When 
the  report  of  the  Health  Officer  was 
examined  it  was  found  that  similar 
conditions  in  much  larger  number  had 
been  noted  by  the  local  inspectors 
and  reported  in  the  annual  report. 
Whether  anything  beyond  inspection 
was  done  was  not  stated  in  the  report. 


Toilet 


'facilities"  on  streets  not  connected  with 
the  public  sewers 


Evidences  indicated  that  a  large  field 
of  service  was  still  open  and  that  the 
law  would  be  of  considerable  assist- 
ance in  the  solution  of  the  problems, if 
properly  enforced.  Over  ten  thousand 
inspections  made  by  two  inspectors  in 
one  year  seem  to  be  recorded  in  the 
annual  report  for  1910.  How  much 
time  was  spent  in  court  proceedings 
and  how  many  of  the  evils  were  ac- 
tually remedied  might  have  been  stated 
in  the  same  report.  Inspection  with- 
out action  is  worse  than  useless. 

SINKS 

In  a  wage  earner's  family  the  work 
of  the  kitchen  is  frequently  done  under 
trying  circumstances,  the  kitchen  being 
used  as  dining  room,  sitting  room,  and 
frequently  as  a  bed  room.  Here  the 
children  congregate  and  in  the  winter 
time  the  kitchen  is  the  only  place 


where  warmth  is  maintained.  The 
sink  is  an  important  asset  of  the  fam- 
ily and  adds  considerable  to  the  facility 
with  which  the  work  of  the  household 
is  done.  It  is,  therefore,  important  to 
ascertain  what  the  facilities  in  the 
apartments  examined  are. 

Of  the  1171  apartments  in  which  the 
sinks  were  examined  the  following 
distribution  of  the  sinks  according  to 
location  was  found: 


Pantry 

Cellar 
Kitchen 
Closet 
Hall 

Total 


446 
7 

524 

192 

2 

1171 


The  location  of  the  sinks  seems  to  be  a 
matter  of  convenience  to  the  builder 
quite  as  much  as  to  the  occupant. 
They  seem  to  have  been  placed  where- 
ever  room  could  be  found  for  them  and 
in  seven  cases  they  were  placed  in  the 
cellar  for  reasons  which  cannot  be  ex- 
plained. That  the  tenants  found  the 
cellar  sinks  inaccessible  cannot  be 
questioned,  especially  as  the  main 
water  supply  of  the  apartment  was 
found  in  the  same  place.  In  some 
instances,  where  the  sink  is  located  in 
the  kitchen,  the  place  chosen  has  no 
relation  whatever  to  the  use  and  even 
the  idea  of  preventing  <  freezing  by 
placing  the  pipes  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  stove,  does  not  seem  to  have  in- 
fluenced the  location. 

We  can  easily  understand  how  the 
pantry  or  some  separate  compartment 
isolated  from  the  kitchen  might  be 
found  to  be  a  convenient  place  for  the 
builder  to  locate  the  sink,  but  the  loca- 
tion of  such  sinks  in  the  toilet  or  the 
location  of  the  toilet  in  the  same  com- 
partment with  the  sink  where  the 
daily  dishes  are  washed  seems  to  be 
more  than  a  matter  of  ordinary  indif- 
ference. It  indicates  a  degree  of  care- 
lessness and  stupidity  on  the  part  of 
owners  and  builders  that  can  with 
difficulty  be  duplicated  in  other  cities. 
Seventeen  such  toilets  and  sinkrooms 
were  found  in  Fall  River  and  other 
similar  instances  have  been  reported, 
but  were  not  included  in  this  investi- 
gation. In  five  such  instances  the 
water  had  been  shut  off  for  from  three 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN    FALL  RIVER 


17 


days  to  three  weeks,  and  in  one  case 
for  four  weeks. 

Considerable  of  the  time  of  the  wife 
and  mother  is  spent  at  the  sink,  es- 
pecially where  there  are  many  children, 
and  it  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the 
proper  repair  of  the  pipes  of  such  sinks 
would  be  maintained,  but  eleven  cases 
were  found  where  the  pipes  were  in  a 
condition  of  disrepair  that  made  the 
walls  and  floors  about  the  sink  damp 
and  in  one  instance  a  pail  was  used  to 
catch  the  water  that  was  coming  out 
of  the  pipes  in  order  to  prevent  it 
from  running  on  to  the  floor. 


The  combination  toilet  and  sink  room 

The  shutting  off  of  water  in  the 
winter  months  is  a  common  practice 
among  owners  and  the  time  during 
which  water  is  not  provided  varies 
from  three  days  to  several  weeks.  In 
twenty-nine  cases  the  water  was  found 
shut  off  and  the  statements  of  the  in- 
spector of  health,  who  maintained  that 
the  water  is  always  opened  up  at  least 
once  a  day,  made  several  reinspections 
necessary.  Whatever  the  statement 
made  by  the  owners  to  the  inspector, 
the  reinspection  proved  to  our  satis- 
faction that  in  ten  instances,  at  the 
time  when  the  owners  claimed  to  have 


the  water  open, the  Health  Authorities 
were  misinformed. 

The  material  of  which  the  sinks  are 
constructed  was  found  to  be  iron  with- 
out enameling  in  87%  of  the  cases. 
That  such  sinks  cannot  be  kept  clean 
is  not  to  be  doubted  and  the  investiga- 
tion proved  this  contention.  About  6% 
of  these  sinks  were  out  of  repair  and 
in  some  instances  the  body  of  the  sink 
had  been  worn  to  a  point  where  the 
water  percolated  on  to  the  floor,  making 
a  bad  appearance  and  interfering  with 
the  cleanliness  of  the  room. 

The  construction,  location  and  care 
of  the  sink  is  of  considerable  impor- 
tance to  the  comfort  of  the  family. 
The  conditions  found  in  Fall  River  in- 
dicate a  certain  lack  of  thoughtfulness 
and  care  which  should  be  made  the 
object  of  legislation. 

WATER  SUPPLY 

The  water  supply  from  the  point  of 
view  of  water  connections  cannot  be 
criticised  since  every  house  examined 
had  connections  with  the  city's  system. 

The  location  of  the  hydrants  is  of 
considerable  importance  to  the  family, 
particularly  as  related  to  the  interior 
or  exterior  of  the  apartment.  In  ten 
buildings  the  only  water  supply  avail- 
able is  from  a  faucet  in  the  cellar. 
Twenty-three  families  derive  their 
water  supply  in  that  manner.  In  one 
case  the  faucet  is  located  on  the  street, 
in  another  in  the  yard,  and  in  three 
cases  the  faucets  are  located  in  the 
halls. 

The  most  serious  evil  in  connection 
with  the  water  service  is  the  winter 
freezing  and  the  shutting  off  of  the 
supply  to  prevent  the  bursting  of  the 
pipes.  To  prevent  such  occurrences 
the  owners  shut  off  the  water  and  in 
39  apartments  we  found  that  the 
tenants  had  to  resort  to  their  neighbors 
for  their  daily  water  supply.  A  com- 
plete reinspection  was  made  of  all  the 
apartments  in  which  the  water  was 
found  shut  off  at  the  time  of  the  first 
inspection,  and  the  number  of  cases 
had  decreased  to  31, and  upon  the  third 
inspection  it  had  decreased  still  further 
to  26.  The  claim  that  the  water  is 


18 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN   FALL  RIVER 


never  shut  off  for  more  than  twenty- 
fours  was  not  borne  out  by  the  facts, 
and  while  in  some  instances  the  tenants 
were  encouraged  by  the  investigators 
to  complain  to  the  Board  of  Health,  it 
seems  that  few  of  the  owners  were  in 
any  way  under  the  control  of  the 
Health  Inspector,  who  had,  as  far  as 
we  could  ascertain,  visited  only  two  of 
the  apartments  in  question  upon  the 
complaint  of  some  of  the  tenants.  In 
4%  the  cases  the  pipes  were  so  small  as 
to  render  the  flow  of  water  inadequate 
for  the  purposes  for  which  they  were 
intended. 

PIPES 

The  construction  of  soil  and  waste 
pipes  as  well  as  drain  pipes  is  carefully 
and  specifically  regulated  by  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  City,  but  several  abuses 
were  found.  In  two  instances  the  ex- 
posed water  pipes  showed  a  condition 
of  disrepair  which  made  their  use 
dangerous  to  the  building,  and  in  many 
other  cases  the  soil  and  waste  pipes 
had  holes  varying  from  small  openings 
about  the  base  to  large  openings  which 
rendered  the  pipes  practically  useless. 
In  one  case  an  exposed  drain  pipe  was 
overflowing  over  the  yard  making  ac- 
cess to  the  house  difficult  and  unpleas- 
ant. Similar  conditions  were  found  in 
the  interior  of  the  apartment,  especi- 
ally the  sink  pipes  and  the  plumbing 
of  the  toilet.  Five  and  three-tenths 
per  cent  of  the  toilets  appeared  to  have 
damp  floors  due  to  improper  piping. 

BATHTUBS 

Bathing  facilities  in  most  of  the 
cheaper  class  of  houses  in  the  smaller 
industrial  cities  are  far  from  being 
common.  The  total  number  of  bath- 
tubs found  in  the  course  of  this  investi- 
gation amounts  to  only  32  or  less  that 
2%  of  the  total  number  of  apartments 
examined.  In  only  four  cases  were 
the  tubs  in  a  condition  of  neglect  and 
apparently  not  in  use,  but  in  two  of 
these  cases  the  water  had  been  frozen 
within  a  week  from  the  time  of  the 
investigation.  The  majority  of  the 
tubs  were  in  good  and  cleanly  condition 
and  the  proverbial  coal  or  potatoes 


were  not  to  be  found  in  them.  In 
three  comparatively  poor  families  the 
bath  rooms  were  found  to  have  little 
mats  and  were  kept  in  very  clean  con- 
dition. 

WASTE 

The  storage,  removal  and  disposal  of 
waste,  especially  garbage  and  refuse, 
are  from  the  point  of  view  of  sanita- 
tion and  the  cleanliness  of  yards  and 
streets  of  considerable  importance. 
That  the  aesthetic  value  of  efficient 
waste  storage,  removal  and  disposal  is 
an  element  not  to  be  neglected  cannot 
be  denied,  but  the  field  of  investigation 
with  which  this  report  is  concerned  is 
so  devoid  of  the  elements  that  make 
for  the  beautiful  in  architecture  or 
surroundings  as  to  render  any  consid- 
eration of  beauty  a  discordant  note. 

GARBAGE 

All  families  have  a  certain  amount 
of  waste  material  which  is  subject  to 
decay  and  is  generally  designated  as 
garbage.  The  receptacles  used  by 
937  families  were  examined  with  a 
view  to  determining  whether  they  are 
adequate  for  the  use  for  which  they 
were  intended,  whether  they  are  of 
wood  or  iron,  and  where  they  are  kept. 
Expressed  in  percentages  the  figures 
are  as  follows: 


The  problem  of  garbage  collection 


Material 


Location 


Adequacy  of 
Receptacles 

Adequate     65.77%  Metal  18.4%  Yard       73.3% 
Inadequate  34.3      Wood  87.6      Shed          6.1 

Landing  10.4 
Cellar  5.5 
Hall  4.7 

It  is  surprising  that  the  city  which 
removes  the  garbage  does  not  insist 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN   FALL  RIVER 


19 


upon  proper  receptacles  and  an  acces- 
sible place  for  the  storage.  That  more 
than  one-third  of  the  receptacles  should 
have  been  found  inadequate  either  in 
size  or  condition  of  repair  to  hold  the 
waste  of  the  householders  in  the 
building  is  a  fact  that  should  not  easily 
be  overlooked  since  upon  these  recep- 
tacles depends  the  efficient  removal  of 
the  refuse  on  the  part  of  the  city. 

The  regularity  of  removal  could  not 
be  ascertained  from  the  householders 
with  any  degree  of  accuracy.  The 
weekly  removal  seems  to  be  the  pre- 
vailing practice,  but  little  of  any  re- 
liable nature  from  the  point  of  view  of 
figures  was  secured  in  the  course  of 
the  investigation.  Cases  were  found, 
however,  where  although  the  recep- 
tacles were  placed  in  the  yards  where 
they  were  easily  accessible,  the  city 
removal  department  had  in  all  appear- 
ances not  taken  steps  to  do  so.  Nine- 
teen such  instances  of  a  very  serious 


The  back  yard  refuse  heap 

nature  were  found  and  in  one  instance 
the  receptacle  had  been  overflowing 
into  the  yard  near  the  window  of  a 
tenement  for  at  least  one  week.  This 
latter  fact  was  ascertained  by  several 
consecutive  inspections  and  the  photo- 
graph which  is  appended  to  this  report 
taken  exactly  seven  days  after  the  first 
inspection  was  made  is  evidence  of 
this  fact. 

That  the  broken  boxes  and  various 
other  devices  for  the  storage  of  gar- 
bage found  among  some  of  the  families 
were  not  of  sufficiently  strong  con- 
struction and  repair  to  hold  quantities 
of  garbage  was  apparent  but  nowhere 
were  signs  found  directing  the  tenants 
concerning  the  care  of  their  garbage. 


Paper  boxes,  or  bags,  broken  barrels 
and  the  bare  ground  were  not  infre- 
quently used  by  the  tenants.  In  two 
cases  troughs  were  being  used  and  in 
several  instances  the  tenants  mixed 
their  garbage  with  the  refuse,  thereby 
making  its  removal  impossible.  In  at 
least  twenty-seven  cases  the  condition 
resulting  from  the  lack  of  receptacles, 
the  throwing  of  refuse  into  the  yard 
or  between  buildings  resulted  in  creat- 
ing a  nuisance  which  was  clearly  per- 
ceptible although  the  investigation 
was  carried  on  in  the  winter  time  when 
the  neglect  of  garbage  is  much  less 
likely  to  become  offensive  than  in  the 
summer. 

ASHES 

The  care  of  the  ashes,  while  from 
the  sanitary  point  of  view  not  as  im- 
portant as  the  care  of  the  garbage, 
still  has  considerable  value  in  main- 
taining a  cleanly  condition  in  the  yards 
and  streets.  Unfortunately  it  must 
be  admitted  that  less  than  one-half  of 
the  yards  or  46%  examined  had  proper 
provisions  for  the  storage  of  ashes  and 
that  with  the  exception  of  31  of  the 
receptacles  provided  all  the  others 
were  of  wood  and  29%  of  them  were 
in  bad  repair.  In  23  of  the  yards  no 
receptacles  could  be  found  and  the 
yards  were  covered  with  a  mixture  of 
ashes  and  other  refuse,  in  some  in- 
stances being  mixed  with  garbage.  In 
the  case  of  the  ash  removal  little  com- 
plaint could  be  made  except  where  the 
receptacles  were  inadequate  and  their 
collection  was  made  practically  impos- 
sible by  the  lack  of  storage  facilities. 

While  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  this 
report  to  deal  with  the  method  of 
refuse  disposal  a  word  should  be  added 
concerning  the  dump  on  Bowler  Street 
which  was  found  not  only  in  bad  con- 
dition, but  where  garbage  and  decayed 
matter  of  various  kinds  are  deposited 
under  the  very  windows  of  a  large 
number  of  tenement  houses  and  where 
the  flow  of  water  contributes  largely 
towards  the  decay  of  the  materials 
deposited.  Complaints  were  made  by 
many  of  the  occupants  of  nearby 
buildings  that  the  smoke  and  dust  and 
odors  that  come  from  the  dump  are  a 


20 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN   FALL  RIVER 


nuisance  to  the  residents  of  the  dis- 
trict. Several  children  were  found 
playing  upon  this  dump  and  the  gen- 
eral condition  that  it  presents  is  well 
represented  in  the  photograph. 

YARD  DRAINAGE 

A  considerable  share  of  the  property 
examined  is  located  upon  low  land  and 
is,  therefore,  in  need  of  proper  drain- 
age. This  is  particularly  true  of  the 
yards  which  serve  as  the  playground 
for  the  children  and  as  is  the  case  with 
the  eleven  courts  examined  is  the  main 
avenue  of  communication  between  the 
street  and  the  home.  Of  the  169  yards 
for  which  accurate  data  were  collected 
27  were  damp  and  muddy  so  as  to 
make  access  to  -the  buildings  through 
the  yards  difficult,  or  at  least  unpleas- 


Tenements  in  a  muddy  courtyard 

ant.  In  eleven  cases  a  sufficient 
amount  of  water  was  found  to  make 
the  passage  from  one  part  of  the  yard 
impossible  without  getting  actually 
wet.  In  two  instances  the  yards  were 
flooded  with  quantities  of  water  which 
was  overflowing  into  the  lower  halls. 
In  these  cases  no  sewer  or  surface 
drainage  was  provided.  In  44  cases 
some  surface  drainage  was  found 
which  took  care  of  most  of  the  moisture 
resulting  from  the  rain  and  melting  of 
snow.  In  one  court  with  ten  families, 
and  in  another  with  eight  families  the 
yards  were  flooded  and  the  garbage 
cans, ash  cans,  rubbish  and  other  waste 
were  to  be  seen  in  the  mud  and  water 
which  covered  the  yard  and  where  the 
children  were  at  play. 


CONDITION  OF  STREETS 

Frequently  in  thinking  or  speaking 
of  housing  conditions  the  street  is 
forgotten,  and  yet  upon  the  condition 
of  the  street  depends  considerable  of 
the  cleanliness  of  the  homes  as  well  as 
the  health  and  comfort  of  the  resi- 
dents. The  street  is  the  hallway  that 
connects  the  factory,  the  school  and 
the  church  with  the  home.  Where 
other  playgrounds  are  not  provided  it 
is  the  playground  of  the  children,  and 
is  the  social  center  for  young  and 
adult  alike,  at  least  during  the  hot 
summer  days  and  nights  when  the  heat 
in  the  apartments  becomes  unendur- 
able. With  this  idea  in  mind,  a  partial 
examination  was  made  of  the  condition 
of  the  streets  upon  which  the  houses 
investigated  are  located.  It  was  found 


A  city  dump,  foot  of  Bowler  Street 

that  29%  of  buildings  examined  were 
located  upon  streets  which  were  either 
entirely  without  pavements,  or  which 
had  dirt  and  cinder  construction,  with 
no  lasting  value  and  which  yield  large 
quantities  of  dust  and  mud.  Forty- 
seven  per  cent  of  the  buildings  were 
located  upon  macadam  streets  which 
were  of  more  permanent  construction 
and  the  balance  were  located  upon 
streets  paved  with  block  or  brick  or 
some  other  hard  construction.  The 
macadam  road  although  better  than 
the  unpaved  street  is  far  from  satis- 
factory, especially  in  a  district  where 
there  is  heavy  traffic.  The  numerous 
cases  of  macadam  pavements  in  poor 
repair,  added  considerably  to  the  bad 
appearance  of  the  streets,  which  do 
not  seem  to  receive  the  care  they  de- 
serve from  the  municipal  departments 
of  street  cleaning  and  construction. 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN    FALL  RIVER 


21 


REPAIR 

The  life  of  a  building  depends  upon 
the  care  that  it  receives  and  the  con- 
dition of  repair  in  which  it  is  kept. 
That  many  of  the  buildings  examined 
were  far  from  receiving  the  care  which 
they  needed  and  that  in  many  in- 
stances the  condition  of  repair  was  in- 
dicative of  utter  neglect,  was  evi- 
dent when  the  investigation  was  first 
started.  Closer  observation  and  ex- 
amination of  buildings  revealed  the 
fact  that  64  out  of  the  279  buildings 
examined,  or  22.9%  were  so  out  of  re- 
pair as  to  raise  a  question  as  to  their 
fitness  for  human  habitation.  Broken 


The  damp  hallway,  out  of  repair 

doors,  ceilings  with  holes  in  them,  a 
roof  with  a  hole  2J  feet  by  2  feet  which 
was  covered  with  an  oil  cloth  in  order 
to  prevent  the  snow  and  rain  from 
pouring  directly  into  the  halls,  broken 
walls  and  falling  plaster,  broken  and 
dangerous  stairs,  broken  window  panes, 
and  other  similar  conditions  were 
found  in  varying  degrees. 

Leaking  roofs  were  such  frequent 
occurrences  and  were  the  cause  of  so 
many  complaints  that  notes  were  made 
only  of  the  most  serious  cases.  A 
family  of  five  was  using  a  sleeping 


room  where  the  floor  was  found  flooded 
on  three  different  inspections.  The 
walls  and  ceiling  of  the  floor  above 
indicated  the  same  condition.  Stairs 
only  three  feet  wide,  broken  and  with- 
out any  other  exit  from  the  second  and 
third  floors, missing  window  blinds  and 
completely  broken  down  doors  in  the 
halls  were  not  difficult  to  find. 

Most  of  the  conditions  of  disrepair 
were  obviously  of  long  standing  and  in 
many  instances  the  type  of  repair  was 
so  rough  and  cheap  as  to  make  it  short 
lived,  besides  giving  the  buildings  an 
appearance  of  shiftlessness. 

From  some  of  the  cases  cited  it  is 
evident  that  the  condition  of  disrepair 
was  in  some  instances  such  as  to  be 
injurious  to  health  and,  therefore,  in 
need  of  immediate  attention. 

LEGISLATION 

The  most  effective  means  of  con- 
trolling bad  housing  conditions  must 
of  necessity  rest  in  the  legislative  pro- 
visions intended  for  the  control  of  such 
conditions  and  the  machinery  provided 
by  the  City  or  State  for  its  enforce- 
ment. 

In  the  City  of  Fall  River  two  sets  of 
legislative  enactments  are  provided  for 
the  control  of  housing  both  from  the 
point  of  view  of  construction  and  of 
subsequent  care  after  buildings  have 
been  constructed.  The  Building  De- 
partment has  charge  of  the  construc- 
tion, the  Plumbing  Inspector  controls 
the  installing  of  sanitary  arrangements 
and  the  Health  Department  deals  with 
the  sanitary  abuses  after  construction. 
This  distribution  of  responsibility, 
without  specific  co-ordination  is  not 
conducive  to  the  best  service  in  hous- 
ing inspection  and  regulation,  and  the 
results  obtained  in  the  course  of  the 
present  inquiry  seem  to  indicate  that 
a  lack  of  co-operation  and  co-ordination 
of  departmental  work  is  responsible 
for  considerable  of  the  present  evil. 

A  building  before  construction  must 
be  passed  upon  first  by  the  Building 
Inspector  who  works  entirely  without 
the  co-operation  of  the  Plumbing  In- 
spector or  the  Health  Department. 
The  Plumbing  Inspector  deals  with  his 


22 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN  FALL  RIVER 


side  of  the  construction  independently 
and  when  the  two  have  done  their 
work  the  Health  Department  is  called 
upon  to  maintain  a  fair  standard  of 
cleanliness  and  sanitation  in  buildings 
over  the  construction  of  which  they 
have  absolutely  no  control. 

Another  important  aspect  of  the 
tenement  house  problem  and  indeed  of 
the  housing  problem  as  a  whole  is  the 
lack  of  legislation  compelling  the  im- 
provement in  old  buildings  constructed 
prior  to  the  passage  of  the  building 
law  at  present  in  force. 

BUILDING  LAW 

The  regulations  relative  to  the  build- 
ing of  dwelling  houses  as  provided  for 
in  the  Fall  River  Building  Laws,  deal 
almost  exclusively  with  the  new  build- 
ings and  leave  the  unsanitary  condi- 
tions of  the  old  buildings  entirely  to 
the  discretion  of  the  Health  Depart- 
ment which  in  turn  has  no  powers  to 
compel  changes  in  construction  unless 
necessary  to  remedy  serious  sanitary 
evils. 

The  only  provision  in  the  Building 
Laws  dealing  with  dwelling  houses 
which  has  any  relation  to  sanitation  is 
Section  56  which  reads:— "All  build- 
ings shall  have  suitable  water  tight 
metallic  leaders,  sufficient  to  carry  all 
the  water  to  the  street,  gutter  or 
sewer,  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  over- 
flow to  the  sidewalk/'  The  other  pro- 
visions deal  with  the  resistance  of  the 
floors  to  weight  and  similar  aspects  of 
construction  applying  generally  to  all 
buildings  constructed  within  the  city. 

A  tenement  house  as  defined  by  the 
Building  Laws  means  a  structure  in 
which  more  than  three  families  are 
living  independently  and  doing  their 
cooking  on  the  premises.  This  defini- 
tion is  not  only  out  of  date,  but  has 
been  abandoned  by  all  the  progressive 
cities,  and  in  recent  years  New  York 
has  been  struggling  to  change  its 
ordinance  which  defines  a  tenement  as 
a  building  occupied  by  more  than  two 
families  into  a  definition  which  would 
include  buildings  with  more  than  one 
tenement  or  apartment.  In  a  City  like 
Fall  River  where  the  majority  of  the 
families  are  living  in  two  and  three 


family  houses  a  definition  such  as  is 
provided  in  the  Building  Laws  is  inex- 
cusable. 

There  are  no  specific  provisions  for 
occupancy  of  lot,  access  to  toilets, 
amount  of  light  and  air  in  rooms,  air 
space  per  person,  and  the  many  other 
provisions  which  modern  Building 
Laws  usually  contain.  That  such  a 
condition  is  conducive  to  laxness  in  the 
construction  was  well  demonstrated  in 
the  course  of  the  investigation, but  the 
responsibility  cannot  be  placed  upon 
anyone  except  the  city  authorities,  who 
have  not  seen  the  necessity  for  con- 
structive legislation  to  meet  local  needs. 

CITY  ORDINANCES 

The  following  regulations  deal  with 
sanitary  conditions  of  the  dwelling 
houses  and  in  some  instances  refer  to 
other  conditions  which  are  directly  or 
indirectly  connected  with  housing  sani- 
tation. 

Regulation  1.  Whatever  is  danger- 
ous to  human  life  or  health;  whatever 
building  or  part  or  cellar  thereof,  is 
overcrowded  or  not  provided  with 
adequate  means  of  ingress  and  egress, 
or  is  not  sufficiently  supported,  venti- 
lated, sewered,  drained,  lighted  or 
cleaned;  and  whatever  renders  soil, air, 
water,  ice  or  food  impure  or  unwhole- 
some are  declared  to  be  nuisances  and 
to  be  illegal;  and  every  person,  firm  or 
corporation  having  aided  in  creating 
or  contributing  to  the  same,  or  who 
may  support,  continue  or  retain  any  of 
them,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  vio- 
lation of  this  regulation  and  liable  to 
the  penalties  provided  by  the  Public 
Statutes  of  the  Commonwealth,  for 
violation  of  such  regulations  as  the 
Board  of  Health  judges  necessary  to 
make  for  the  preservation  of  the  public 
health  and  safety,  and  shall  also  be 
liable  for  the  expense  of  the  abatement 
or  remedy  required. 

Regulation  4.  The  owners,  agents, 
occupants  or  other  persons  having  the 
care  of  any  building  or  tenement  used 
as  a  dwelling,  or  for  any  other  purpose, 
standing  on  land  adjoining  a  street 
through  which  a  common  sewer  has 
been,  or  shall  hereafter  be  laid,  shall, 
whenever  required  by  the  Board  of 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN    FALL  RIVER 


23 


Health,  cause  proper  and  sufficient 
drains  to  be  constructed  from  their 
premises  leading  into  such  sewer  by 
proper  connections,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  Public  Statutes  of  the  Com- 
monwealth and  the  regulations  of  the 
Board  of  Health,  and  shall  abolish  and 
discontinue  the  use  of  all  privy  vaults 
and  cesspools  on  the  premises  accord- 
ing to  said  regulations  and  within  the 
time  stated  in  a  notice  issued  by  the 
Board  of  Health,  under  a  penalty  for 
failure  to  comply  with  said  notice  of  a 
fine  of  one  hundred  dollars. 

Regulation  8.  Cellars  of  stables  in 
which  horses  or  cattle  are  kept  shall  be 
built  in  a  thorough  and  substantial 
manner  and  shall  be  properly  venti- 
lated. Should  any  cesspool, privy  vault 
or  stable  cellar  be  located  within  20 
feet  from  the  boundary  line  of  the  lot 
whereon  such  cesspool,  privy  vault  or 
stable  cellar  is  located,  or  from  the 
foundation  wall  of  any  dwelling  house, 
or  within  50  feet  from  a  well  or  other 
source  of  water  supply  which  is  used 
for  domestic  purposes,  the  Board  of 
Health  may  require  such  cesspool, 
privy  vault  or  stable  cellar  to  be  built 
absolutely  water-tight. 

Regulation  9.  No  person  shall  con- 
struct any  drain  for  the  purpose  of 
conveying  the  waste  water  or  overflow 
from  any  vault  or  cesspool  upon  his 
premises,  to  the  public  sewer,  side- 
walk, gutter  or  street  surface,  and  all 
persons  who  now  have  such  drains  are 
required  to  remove  the  same,  and  no 
person  shall  hereafter  allow  or  cause 
any  waste  water  or  overflow  from  any 
drain,  vault  or  cesspool  to  flow  from 
his  premises  on  to  the  street  or  side- 
walk or  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground, 
and  no  sewage,  sink,  or  wash  water 
shall  be  allowed  to  run  or  stand  on  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  but  it  must  be 
conveyed  through  a  suitable  drain  to 
the  sewer,  or  into  a  cesspool  made  for 
the  purpose,  and  all  drains  entering 
sewers  or  cesspools  must  be  provided 
with  suitable  traps  and  ventilations. 

Regulation  11.  Whenever  any  privy, 
vault,  stable  cellar  or  cesspool  shall 
become  offensive,  the  same  shall  be 
cleansed.  And  in  case  the  condition 
or  construction  of  any  vault,  privy, 


stable  cellar,  or  cesspool  shall  be  dif- 
ferent from  the  requirements  specified 
in  these  regulations,  the  Board  of 
Health  may  cause  the  same  to  be 
cleansed,  repaired,  altered  or  removed, 
and  shall  charge  all  expenses  incurred 
in  so  doing  to  the  owner  or  party  oc- 
cupying the  estate  in  which  such 
privy,  vault,  stable  cellar  or  cesspool 
may  be;  provided  the  Board  of  Health 
shall  first  give  such  owner  or  his  agent, 
or  the  party  occupying  the  premises  a 
written  notice  and  allow  the  space  of 
at  least  48  hours  for  such  owner  or  oc- 
cupant to  comply  with  such  notice, 
and  such  agent,  owner  or  occupant 
failing  to  comply  with  such  notice. 

Regulation  16.  When  a  vault,  privy 
or  cesspool  shall  be  found  to  contain 
an  excessive  amount  of  tins,  crockery 
or  other  rubbish,  the  health  agent  or 
inspector  shall  report  the  same  to  the 
Board,  and  a  fine  of  two  dollars  may 
thereupon  be  imposed  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Board  upon  the  owner  of  said 
property. 

Regulation  22.  No  person  or  persons 
shall  keep  fowl,  of  any  kind,  in  any 
cellar,  basement,  attic  or  other  part  of 
a  dwelling  house  or  store;  nor  in  any 
coop  or  hennery  within  ten  feet  of  a 
dwelling  house,  and  all  cellars  must 
be  properly  ventilated  to  keep  them 
dry  and  healthful;  and  no  stagnant 
water  or  filth  of  any  kind,  will  be  al- 
lowed to  remain  on  any  vacant  land, 
or  under  any  building,  thereby  causing 
a  nuisance. 

Regulation  23.  Whenever, upon  due 
examination,  it  shall  appear  to  the 
Board  of  Health  that  the  number  of 
persons  occupying  any  tenement  or 
building  in  the  city  is  so  great  as  to  be 
the  cause  of  a  nuisance  or  sickness,  or 
a  source  of  filth,  or  that  any  tenement 
or  building  is  not  furnished  with  vaults 
constructed  according  to  the  provisions 
of  these  regulations,  or  with  sufficient 
privies  or  water  closets,  or  drains 
under  ground  for  waste  water,or  from 
any  cause  has  become  unfit  for  habita- 
tion, it  will  thereupon  issue  a  notice, 
in  writing,  to  such  persons,  or  any  of 
them,  requiring  them  to  remove  from 
and  quit  such  tenement  or  building 
within  such  time  as  the  Board  shall 


24 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN   FALL  RIVER 


deem  reasonable,  and  unless  such 
notice  is  complied  with  within  the  time 
specified  therein,  the  Board  shall  take 
legal  steps  to  vacate  and  close  up  the 
tenement  or  building. 

No  agent, owner  or  lessee  of  a  build- 
ing or  tenement  which  has  been  ad- 
judged by  the  Board  of  Health  as  unfit 
for  human  habitation  and  vacated  shall 
thereafter  allow  the  same  to  be  used 
as  a  dwelling  until  it  shall  have  been 
put  in  such  condition  as  the  Board  of 
Health  shall  approve  and  permission 
in  writing  granted  by  said  Board  for 
such  use. 

Regulation  28.  All  persons,  firms 
and  corporations  having  refrigerators 
or  using  city  water  from  hydrants 
upon  their  premises  shall  not  allow  the 
waste  water  from  the  same  to  run 
upon  the  sidewalks  or  public  streets, 
and  in  all  cases  where  such  property 
abuts  on  a  street  having  a  public  sewer 
therein  the  owner,  agent  or  occupant 
shall  be  required  to  connect  the  same 
with  the  sewer. 

Regulation  29.  No  person  shall  de- 
posit or  cause  to  be  deposited  dead  fish 
or  the  entrails  or  heads  or  any  part 
thereof  or  dead  animals  of  any  kind  in 
any  street,  court,  alley,  vacant  lot, 
pond,  creek,  river,  dock  or  any  of  the 
waters  within  the  city  limits. 

Regulation  30.  No  person  or  persons 
shall  throw  or  deposit,  or  cause  to  be 
thrown  or  deposited  in  any  street, 
court,  square,  alley,  public  place  or 
vacant  lot,  or  into  any  pond,  creek  or 
river,  any  dirt,  saw-dust,  soot,  ashes, 
cinders,  shavings,  hair,  lime,  shreds, 
manure,  oyster,  lobster  or  clam  shells, 
waste  water,  rubbish  or  filth  of  any 
kind  or  the  contents  of  any  cesspool  or 
privy  vault,  or  any  animal  or  vegetable 
substance.  Nor  shall  any  person  or 
persons  throw  or  cast  or  cause  to  be 
thrown  or  cast  any  dead  animals,  or 
any  foul  or  offensive  ballast  into  any 
dock  or  any  other  of  the  waters  within 
or  adjoining  the  city.  Nor  shall  any 
person  or  persons  land  or  deliver  or 
cause  to  be  landed  or  delivered  any 
fertilizer  or  other  foul  or  offensive 
animal  or  vegetable  substance  within 
the  city  unless  he  or  they  shall  have 
first  obtained  the  permission  of  the 
Board  of  Health  to  do  so. 


Regulation  37.  Each  estate  or  tenant 
shall  provide  sufficient  water  tight 
vessels  to  contain  the  swill  until  it  is 
removed  by  the  garbage  collector. 
Such  vessels  shall  stand  in  the  base- 
ment or  back  yard,  where  they  can  be 
easily  reached  by  the  collector,  and 
must  be  kept  covered.  There  shall 
not  be  deposited  with  the  swill  any  tin 
cans,  broken  glass  or  crockery,  oyster 
or  clam  shells,  old  shoes,  old  clothes, 
rags,  papers,  sweepings,  sawdust, 
lawn  clippings,  or  any  poisonous  sub- 
stances, which  must  be  kept  with  the 
ashes  as  formerly,  nor  any  dead  ani- 
mals which  must  be  buried  by  the 
owners.  Swill  containing  any  of  the 
above  mentioned  foreign  substances, 
except  lobster  shells  which  may  be  de- 
posited with  the  swill  will  have  to  be 
taken  care  of  by  the  owners  at  their 
own  expense,  and  any  person  violating 
this  regulation  shall  be  liable  to  a  fine 
of  one  hundred  dollars. 

Regulation  39.  Drain  and  soil  pipes 
through  which  water  and  sewerage 
are  carried  shall  be  of  sound  iron  when 
within  a  building,  and  for  a  distance 
of  two  feet  outside  the  foundation 
walls;  said  pipes  shall  be  thoroughly 
coated  inside  and  out  with  coal  tar,  or 
an  equivalent  substance, and  they  shall 
be  provided  with  suitable  cleanouts  to 
such  number  as  may  be  required  by 
the  Inspector  of  Plumbing  or  Board  of 
Health.  They  shall  be  securely  ironed 
to  the  walls, suspended  by  iron  hangers 
or  laid  in  trenches  of  uniform  grade 
having  proper  fall  toward  the  drain  or 
sewer.  Soil  pipes  shall  be  extended 
through  the  roof  two  feet,  open  and 
undiminished  in  size. 

Regulation  41.  When  it  is  necessary 
to  lay  soil  pipe  under  the  ground  in 
cellars,  it  shall  be  of  the  quantity 
known  as  "extra  heavy  pipe."  The 
length  passing  through  the  walls  of 
the  building  shall  also  be  of  extra 
heavy  pipe.  All  cast  iron  pipes  must 
be  sound  and  free  from  holes  and  other 
defects,  and  of  a  uniform  thickness. 

Regulation  42.  Every  sink,  basin, 
bath  tub,  water  closet,  slophopper,and 
every  set  of  trays,  and  every  fixture 
having  a  waste  pipe, shall  be  furnished 
with  a  trap  placed  as  near  the  fixture 
as  practicable.  No  trap  shall  be  placed 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN    FALL  RIVER 


25 


at  the  bottom  of  a  vertical  line  of 
waste  pipe. 

Regulation  44.  All  water  closets 
shall  be  supplied  with  water  from  a 
tank  holding  not  less  than  four  gallons 
of  water.  The  flushing  pipe  from  the 
tank  to  the  closet  shall  not  be  less 
than  one  and  one-fourth  inches  in 
diameter. 

Regulation  45.  There  shall  be  in  all 
tenements  or  blocks  on  streets  where 
there  is  a  sewer,  at  least  one  water- 
closet  for  every  12  persons.  In  no 
class  of  buildings,  whether  public  or 
private,  will  water  closets  be  per- 
mitted, in  any  room  or  apartment  that 
has  not  a  window  having  an  area  of  at 
least  three  square  feet  or  an  air-shaft 
of  same  dimensions  opening  directly 
to  the  external  air. 

Regulation  47.  All  drains  now  in  or 
hereafter  laid  as  well  as  soil  and  waste 
pipes,  shall  be  reconstructed  whenever, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Board  of  Health 
it  may  be  necessary. 

Regulation  50.  Subsoil  drains  shall 
be  constructed  wherever  dampness  of 
site  is  known  to  exist.  When  con- 
structed they  must  be  effectually 
trapped  and  means  provided  to  main- 
tain a  seal  and  no  opening  into  the 
sewer  for  the  purpose  of  draining  the 
cellar  of  surface  water  will  be  allowed 
unless  by  special  permission  of  the 
Board  of  Health. 

Regulation  54.  No  person,  company, 
firm  or  corporation  shall  erect  or  main- 
tain any  manufactory  or  place  of 
business,  within  the  city,  dangerous 
to  life  or  detrimental  to  health,  or 
where  unwholesome,  offensive  or  de- 
leterious odors,  gas,  smoke,  deposit  or 
exhalations  are  generated,  without  the 
permit  of  the  Board  of  Health,  and  all 
such  establishments  shall  be  kept  clean 
and  wholesome  so  as  not  to  be  offen- 
sive or  prejudicial  to  public  health; 
nor  shall  any  offensive  or  deleterious 
waste  substances,  gas-tar,  sludge, 
refuse  or  injurious  matter  be  allowed 
to  accumulate  upon  the  premises  or 
be  thrown  or  allowed  to  run  into 
any  public  waters,  stream,  water- 
course, street  or  public  place.  And 
every  person,  company,  firm  or  cor- 
poration conducting  such  manufacture 


or  business  shall  use  the  best  approved 
and  all  reasonable  means  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  smoke,  gases  and  odors, 
and  to  protect  the  health  and  safety 
of  the  public  and  all  operatives  em- 
ployed therein.  Any  violation  of  any 
of  the  provisions  of  this  regulation 
shall  be  punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  less 
than  ten  dollars  nor  more  than  one 
hundred  dollars  for  each  offence. 

COMMENTS  ON  LEGISLATION 

Regulation  1  deals  with  the  nuisances 
which  are  defined  in  the  broadest 
possible  manner.  Under  its  provi- 
sions the  most  drastic  and  effective 
measures  could  be  taken  by  the  Health 
Department  to  remove  existing  evils. 
Unfortunately,  however,  such  is  not 
the  case.  Legislation  that  is  not 
specific  in  the  highest  degree  is  seldom 
enforced  for  fear  of  inviting  court 
proceedings  and  involving  the  law  en- 
forcing authorities  in  controversies 
which  may  be  detrimental  to  the 
prestige  of  the  department.  Where 
politics  are  concerned  such  litigation 
is  detrimental  to  the  administration  in 
power.  Few  are  the  officials  who  care 
to  run  such  a  risk  and  the  public  is 
demanding  a  degree  of  efficiency  which 
is  almost  impossible  to  maintain  under 
present  conditions  when  laws  are  in- 
definite and  the  sacred  principle  of 
non-interference  with  private  property 
is  at  stake. 

The  definition  of  a  nuisance  as 
provided  in  regulation  No.  1  cannot  be 
improved  upon  in  wording,  but  its 
interpretation  should  be  made  the 
subject  of  local  legislation  rather  than 
a  matter  of  personal  opinion  on  the 
part  of  the  health  authorities  and  their 
agents. 

The  provision  for  the  vacating  of 
houses  unfit  for  human  habitation  is 
quite  as  forceful  as  that  relating  to 
nuisances,  but  the  opinion  of  the 
health  department  is  again  the  only 
authority  to  decide  upon  such  unfit- 
ness.  More  specific  regulations  upon 
this  aspect  of  housing  legislation 
should  be  provided. 

All  other  regulations  as  is  shown  by 
the  above  Quotations  deal  with  specific 


26 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN   FALL  RIVER 


unsanitary  structural  defects  which 
were  frequently  found.  That  these 
regulations  are  far  from  being  ade- 
quate for  the  needs  of  a  growing 
industrial  city  like  Fall  River,  the 
contents  of  this  report  should  indicate. 
The  few  regulations  dealing  with  sani- 
tary arrangements  are  antiquated  and 
the  provision  concerning  number  of 
persons  per  toilet  is  absurd  since  with 
the  constant  moving  of  tenants  12  per- 
sons per  toilet  may  be  a  good  standard 
at  one  time  and  a  poor  standard  at 
another,  may  involve  the  additional 
building  of  a  toilet  with  the  addition 
of  one  person  to  a  family.  This  pro- 
vision is  a  dead  letter  and  should 
remain  so.  The  whole  health  code 
which  relates  to  housing  needs  a  radi- 
cal and  immediate  change. 

NATIONALITIES 

Immigration  is  the  most  momentous 
social  factor  in  determining  many  of 
the  social  and  economic  problems 
which  face  the  economist  and  social 
worker,  the  employers  and  employees 
of  this  country.  The  cities,  as  such, 
receive  their  share  of  the  burden  of 
the  immigrant  problem  in  the  in- 
creased needs  for  sanitary  guardian- 
ship. The  congestion  of  population 
and  the  overtaxing  of  housing  and 
educational  facilities  endanger  health 
and  hamper  the  maintenance  of  a 
normal  American  standard  of  home 
making. 

The  housing  problem  in  industrial 
cities  such  as  Fall  River,  Providence, 
Waterbury,  etc.  is  preeminently  a 
problem  of  immigration,  a  problem  of 
adjustment  between  the  facilities  for 
home-making  and  the  demand  for  such 
facilities. 

To  have  a  housing  problem  is,  there- 
fore,  not  an  indication  of  hopeless 
social  mal-adjustment,  but  rather  an 
indication  of  industrial  progress.  The 
insufficient  accommodation  for  the  in- 
creasing population  is  due  to  the  char- 
acteristic American  tendency  to  con- 
fine foresight  to  industry  and  to  leave 
the  private  welfare  of  the  individual 
worker  and  his  family  to  the  mercy  of 
kindly  but  helpless  reformers  and 
charitable  agencies  whose  problems 


become  more  and  more  complicated  as 
the  demand  for  labor  increases  and 
skill  becomes  less  and  less  a  qualifica- 
tion for  industrial  production.  That 
the  efficiency  of  the  workers,  whether 
in  skilled  trades  or  not,  depends  upon 
the  conditions  under  which  these 
workers  are  living  is  a  principle  realized 
by  only  the  select  among  the  em- 
ployers. The  mass  of  them  still  inter- 
pret their  interest  in  terms  of  low 
wages  and  complete  indifference  to  the 
welfare  of  the  worker  as  such. 

The  cotton  and  woolen  mill  cities 
have  been  especially  characterized  by 
this  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  em- 
ployers and  the  lesson  which  some  of 
the  recent  strikes  have  taught  us 
should  not  be  soon  forgotten. 

CONCLUSION 

In  Fall  River  the  housing  problem 
is  most  emphatically  a  tenement  house 
problem,  in  the  New  York  sense  of 
that  term,  since  the  average  number 
of  tenements  or  apartments  per  build- 
ing was  found  to  be  4.2  or  more  than 
the  lowest  number  designated  by  law, 
either  in  New  York  City  or  in  Fall 
River.  The  conditions  found  lead  to 
several  important  conclusions: 

1.  The  housing  problem  is  not  con- 
fined to  a  limited  territory,  but  extends 
over  a  wide  area  embracing  several 
sections  of  the  city. 

2.  The  congestion  of  population  does 
not  constitute  a  very  serious  problem 
except  in  specific  instances  and  the 
practice  of  keeping  lodgers  constitutes 
a  problem  of  family   privacy  rather 
than  a  problem  of  congestion. 

3.  Rents  per  room  bear  a  significant 
relation  to  the  number  of  rooms  oc- 
cupied by  the  family  and  the  number 
of  persons  per  room.     This  relation 
may  be  stated  as  follows;  the  larger 
the  number  of  rooms  the  less  the  rental 
per  room  and  the  less  the  number  of 
people  per  room. 

4.  The  most  serious  abuses  from  the 
point  of  view  of  sanitation  and  con- 
venience were  found  among  the  for- 
eign residents,  but  abuses  of  the  most 
serious  nature  were  not  absent  among 
the  native  tenants. 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN    FALL  RIVER 


27 


5.  The  work  of  the  Health  Depart- 
ment as  related  to  the  conditions  over 
which  this  Department    has    control 
indicated  a  lack  of  law  enforcement 
which   leads  to  the   belief  that    the 
Department  is  either  unable  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  community  because 
of  over  work  or  because  of  inefficiency. 

6.  The    laws    relating    to  the  con- 
struction of  new  dwelling  houses  as 
well  as  the  provisions  dealing  with 
the  maintenance  of  old  buildings  are 
wholly  inadequate  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  community  and    the    present 
demands  for  sanitary  construction  in- 
tended  to  meet  the  strain   of   large 
families  and  small  apartments. 

7.  The    Building    Department,    the 
Inspector  of  Plumbing  and  the  Health 
Department  have  no  close  relationship 
and  their  work  is  carried  on  with  such 
a  lack  of  co-ordination  as  to  make  their 
service  inefficient  and   in    many    in- 
stances conflicting.     The  work  of  the 
health  department  as  an   agency  for 
the    control    of    objectional    sanitary 
condition  is  hampered   by  the  ineffi- 
ciency,   carelessness  and    inadequate 
legislation  of  the  other  two  depart- 
ments above  mentioned. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

The  only  purpose  of  the  present 
investigation  was  the  securing  of  suffi- 
cient accurate  data  upon  which  to  base 
a  program  of  action  which  would  bring 
about  speedy  and  permanent  improve- 
ments in  the  general  housing  condi- 
tions of  the  city  and  prevent,  in  the 
future,  the  building  of  structures  which 
do  not  provide  for  a  reasonable  stand- 
ard of  safety,  sanitation  and  privacy. 
The  facts  revealed  in  the  course  of 
the  investigation  have  a  decided  bear- 
ing upon  these  three  aspects  of  the 
problem,  and  a  program  based  upon 
them  should  bring  about  results  of  a 
constructive  character.  In  the  light 
of  the  facts  revealed  by  the  present 
investigation  the  following  recom- 
mendations suggest  themselves: 

A.  The  appointment  of  a  Sanitary 
Inspector  whose  exclusive  duty  it 
should  be  to  inspect  regularly  and  at 
frequent  intervals  all  the  buildings 


inspector  should  have  specific  powers 
as  suggested  in  Section  B.  The  in- 
spector should  keep  a  record  of  all  the 
inspections  made  and  record  all  condi- 
tions which  are  in  any  way  contrary 
to  the  State  Laws  or  City  Ordinances. 
These  records  should  be  kept  in  the 
office  of  the  Health  Department  and 
should  be  accessible  to  any  physician 
or  anyone  representing  a  philanthropic 
agency  chartered  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Upon  these  records  should 
be  entered  all  complaints  against  prop- 
erty and  the  disposition  of  the  cases 
whether  by  order  of  the  Health  De- 
partment or  through  the  local  courts. 
The  said  inspector  should  report  annu- 
ally upon  the  number  of  inspections 
made,  the  abuses  found  and  the  dis- 
position of  each  class  of  abuses. 

B.  The  City  Council  of  Fall  River 
should  pass  an  ordinance  changing  the 
definition  of  a  tenement  from  four  to 
a  two-family  house  and  shall  provide 
specific  regulations  concerning  the  oc- 
cupancy of  lot,  dark  rooms,  fire-escapes, 
number  of  families  per  toilet  and  their 
location,  and  all  matters  pertaining  to 
the  safety  of  health  and  privacy  of  the 
occupants.     The  City   Council   should 
also  pass  ordinances  dealing  with  the 
care  and  maintenance  of  old  buildings 
requiring  such  changes  as  seem  feasi- 
ble and  as  are  necessary  in  the  light  of 
the  facts  revealed  by  the  present  in- 
vestigation.    All  owners  of  buildings, 
or  their  agents,  should  be  required  to 
register  in  the  office  of  the  Health  De- 
partment the  facts  concerning  the  loca- 
tion, size,  age,  rental  and  other  details 
which  would  indicate  the  condition  of 
the  building  and  the  sanitary  arrange- 
ments and   location   of  them  in   the 
building.  A  penalty  should  be  provided 
for  failure  to  register  the   property 
within  a  certain  time  from  the  passage 
of  the  ordinance. 

C.  The  appointment  by  the  Associ- 
ated Charities,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  and  any  other 
prominent  agency  in  the  city  of  a  per- 
manent Housing  Committee  affiliated 
with  the  National  Housing  Association 
whose  duty  it  should  be  to  devise  and 
carry  out  plans  for  the  securing  of 
proper  housing  legislation  and  its  effi- 


28 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS    IN  FALL  RIVER 


APPENDIX 


The  following  conditions  were  noted 
upon  some  of  the  field  cards  filled  out 
in  the  course  of  the  investigation. 
They  were  selected  with  a  view  to  in- 
dicating some  of  the  prevailing  condi- 
tions rather  than  the  uncommon  abuses 
that  came  to  light  in  the  course  of  the 
inquiry.  The  numbers  of  houses  were 
not  given  for  fear  of  offending  owners, 
but  they  can  be  obtained  at  the  office 
of  the  Associated  Charities,  84  North 
Main  Street,  where  all  the  field  notes 
have  been  filed  and  are  open  to  the 
inspection  of  those  interested. 

Central  Street— W.  C.  used  by  four  families, 

no  water  1  week. 

Washington — Dark  kitchen  and  dark  bed  room. 
Montaup— One  bed  room  very  damp,  leaking 

roof. 

Broadway— Toilet  and  sink  together. 
Columbia— Plaster  and  wall  paper  fall  apart, 

owing  to  leakage,  windows  broken. 
Borden— Toilet  used  by  4  families,seat  broken. 
Fourth — Yard  full  of  rubbish.  No  inside  stairs, 

outside  stairs,  narrow  and  unprotected. 
George— W.  C.  filthy,  no  water  3  weeks,  used 

by  5  families. 

Orange — Dark,  dirty,  damp  cellar  toilet. 
Montaup— W.  C.  in  pantry,  4  people  sleep  in 

kitchen,  no  cellar. 


Pleasant — Four  dark  bed  rooms. 

Lindsey — 2  toilets  in  cellar  for  4  families;  no 

water  for  2  months,  no  chain  to  lever. 
Montaup— Partition  between  W.  C.  and  pantry 

3  ft.  below  ceiling. 
Orange  — W.  C.  in  bed  room. 
Minto— 4  filthy  toilets  in  cellar. 
Flint  -W.  C.  partition  3  feet  from  ceiling  in 

dark  bed  room. 

Unity— Filthy  cellar  toilet  used  by  8  families. 
Jenks— W.  C.  in  clothes  press  in  bed  room. 
Flint — Doors  and  stairs  broken,  general  state 

of  bad  repair;  ashes,  rubbish   and  garbage 

in  yard. 

Pleasant — 16  people  in  4  rooms. 
Bedford  — Dark  bed  room  has  2  beds, 2  lodgers, 

2  children. 
Robeson — Family  of  10  in  3  rooms,  3   sleep  in 

kitchen,  7  in  2  small  rooms. 
Robeson— Ceiling  leaks,  toilet  dark   and   un- 

ventilated. 

Robeson — Attic  toilet  offensive. 
Green— Very  damp  cellar. 
Tenth — Kitchen  ceiling  has  big  hole. 
Summer— Room  where  7  people  sleep. 
Platt— Sink  drain  leaks  into  cellar. 
Orange— Water  supply  not  adequate;  rooms 

leak. 
Orchard  — W.  C.  in  cellar  used  by  2  families, 

no  tank,    water  received    in    hydrant    and 

pours  over  earth  floor. 
Pleasant— W.  C.  in  hall  used  by  3  families. 


Munroe  Press 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS   IN   FALL  RIVER 


29 


"THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER' 


Our  Most  Serious  Problem 


*%  * 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


,998 


LD  21A-60m-3,'65 
(F2336slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


Bros. 


5.  N.  Y. 

1,  1908 


06 


393430 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


U.  C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


